- It has been ten years since the end of the world as we knew it. A world-wide Internet infection by an unusual type of virus (called CLULESS) was the trigger. Reality was torn to bits, never to come back fully to normal...— the Opening Narration

We bid you welcome. Leave your sanity at the door. And for what's worth, enjoy your stay (Art by OrionPax09
).

Coreline is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover d20 Modern Tabletop RPG / Fan Fic Shared Universe setting started by marcoasalazarm, with the involvement of various other artists on the Wizards of the
Coast
and EnWorld
forums, with fan fiction and fan art
available on DeviantArt. It also has its own forums
.
Not to be confused with Coraline. Seriously, don't.
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Stories Set In Coreline
- Legends of the Fourth of July (Coreline)
- The Great Fireworks Fiasco
- Rise of the Extraordinary Avengers (Coreline)
- Holiday Time Heroes Coreline
- Doctor Shikigami's Monster
- Avengers Reassembled
- A Day in the Life of Sylia Stingray
- Behold! The Vanguard!
- Tales of the Vanguard
- The Shikigami Ranger and the Monster Mashers
- Coreline Invasion Of Portland
- The Flighty Shield
- The Captain and the Prince
- Double Team Trouble
- An Equestroid Comes To Equestria
- High Stakes Rangers
- Coreline: A Tale Of Two Maris
- CLINE: Oh Crap...
- Coreline Poker Night At The Black Cross Bar
- Regular Dinosaur Park
- Semper Paratus
- Coreline: A Tale Of Two Maris
- CORELINE: A Terrific Summer's End
- CLINE Storm Warning
- Coreline Operation Snake Charmer
- Coreline Operation Hard Entry
- Coreline Operation Dead Kombat
- Cline Op Ghost In The Machine
- Cline Operation Memory Lane
- Coreline Operation Endgame
- CORELINE: The Gravity Falls Run
- Coccinelle Chat Soldat
- Clash Of Marvels A Coreline Short Story
- Blizzards And Bookstores
- Coreline The PROGENY Research Arc
- CORELINE: An Amazon's Test
- It's All Over But The Building—A C-Line Story
- Someone With The Skills To Intervene A Coreline Story
- A Job for the Water Tribe
- A Little Hospitality
- Une Monde Plein De Danger
This setting provides examples of:
- Action Girl: It probably would be easier to count the women that have appeared within the stories that don't have a capacity to protect themselves.
- Adaptational Badass: A potential destiny to any Fiction that arrives to the setting. And a perennial survival necessity.
- Aliens in Cardiff: Multiple examples, some because of things like elements of a Fictional franchise appearing on places where it was filmed (such as Hardwick, New Jersey being terrorized by Jason Voorhees), some because of the thematic irony (most if not all Elm Streets on the planet getting plagued by Freddy Krueger, with some managing to keep him away by changing their names, and some... not being that lucky, or Robot Hell being underneath Action Park), some just because (such as Costa Rica getting a pocket dimension over on the province of Guanacaste
that hosts the Hidden Village of Konoha).
- All Fiction Is Real Somewhere: The Vanishing and all of the chaos that follows is iron-clad proof that the "World As Fiction" theory is real. Lots of drama and ass-kicking has ensued as a result.
- All There in the Manual: Lots of setting info is available on the Forums and on the DeviantArt galleries, including art of many of the characters.
- Alternate Self: Explicitly called "Alternates" or variations of it (like "Walternate", for example), these are the many versions of a Fictional character that have appeared all over the CoreLine universe.
- Amusement Park of Doom: Spread all over the place, many of them still abandoned because of the devastation of The Hours (and one of the Real Life examples of this Trope even before the Hours, Action Park, becoming a literal doorway to Hell... well, ROBOT Hell, but still...). The short story "Regular Dinosaur Park
" follows one attempt by Jurassic Park to become less full of doom... by purchasing a severe amount of More Dakka for "asset containment" from a version of Washu Hakubi which has added "Arms Dealer" to her Omnidisciplinary Scientist resume.
- Even then, there's mention within the story that the Park's key market, after five years since it started business, is the "daredevil"-types who would not mind the park being absurdly full of danger.
- Appropriated Appellation: The "Pariah Gene
" (a mutation that nullifies powers wide-spread in an area that becomes wider the stronger the carrier's emotions become) was called in such a way because the first-ever case of a user "erupting" and using said powers happened in such a manner (dispelling a Warhammer 40,000 Daemon) that people assumed it was just a surge in Psychic Blanks (or "Pariahs")
from that universe. It was later discovered that it was a pretty different mutation (and the work of the CLULESS Virus), but the name had long since stuck.
- The use of Trope names (new and old) started as the attempt by the people on the street of breaking down such wide-spread insanity amongst the Fiction backstories and powers into something that they could understand, not break their heads on the factions' multi-dollar-word encyclopedia classifications. Even the greatest and most eloquent of heroes nowadays will occasionally call a Trope by name (as it is written on ''this very Wiki''), even if they are sticklers for the other classification methods, in order to make themselves understood by regular people.
- Arc Words: "This crazy world". Also a case of "Strange Minds Think Alike (when they rant)".
- Arms Dealer: Many of them work on the setting, but an occasional secondary character is an Alternate version of Washu Hakubi (the OVA, Physical God, older-than-her-home-universe Washu Hakubi) that has created her own Mega-Corp ("Hakubi Customs"). The short story Regular Dinosaur Park showcases A Day in the Limelight for her, in which she sells a whole lot of bang-bang to the security forces of Jurassic freaking Park (and the scene where she shows her wares is explicitly meant to be a Shout-Out to other 'weapons selling' scenes on this page, in particular Justin Hammer's and "Easy Andy"'s). On some other appearances she acts like a for-hire Expy of Q (the one that works for MI-6).
- Badass Army: Among others, the Los Angeles Police Department (which is the focus of various fics written by Gideon020-essentially having become something mixing ESWAT and The Mega-City Judges, with some Dragnet sprinkled on top).
- Badass Crew: Various stories written so far follow these, but a few that stand out are: The Champions (a crew of superheroes funded by Stingray Industries, which includes Super Fic versions of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ranma ˝ and even Avatar: The Last Airbender fiction characters) and the Extraordinary Avengers (which are a big crew composed almost totally of Fusion Fic (Marvel/other franchise) characters).
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Multiple factions expose this kind of wear, such as MI-6, Huntsman & Kingsman (who also get a lot of money making said suits to selected clientele), the FBI and the Secret Service.
- Bad Guy Bar: There are many places like this throughout the galaxy, from the "Black Cross Bar" in Chicago (first appearing on the short story Coreline Poker Night At The Black Cross Bar) to "The Speakeasy" (also on Chicago, much more high-class and catering to the "real" organized crime, to the point that being invited to go there for a drink and not for being on bodyguard duty is a symbol of having become a "made man"), to pretty much any place that sells liquor within the city limits of Roanapur to Mos Eisley Cantina.
- Balkanize Me: Various places on Earth have divided into chunks great and small (such as Britannia conquering part of Siberia, Los Angeles becoming a Mega City (and mini-nation), Orlando becoming a kingdom ruled by King Mickey Mouse, a chunk of Texas being ruled by Angry Joe, and Germany dividing again into East (which is still relatively normal) and West (which has been taken over by, and renamed into, “Neo-Amestris”.)
- Brainwashed and Crazy: What a lot of Pre-Vanishing Humans believe had to be done to those who disappeared, if they can shrug off as much of the crazy as they are able to.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: The Vanishing was a situation bad enough that people used anything capable of killing that was within reach. As well, many Fictions that came from old eras (like World War II) used (or provided access to) "brand new" versions of said old weapons. In the aftermath, many groups decided to mass-produce reproductions (sometimes comparatively upgraded for modern-day standards) to bolster their arsenals (and their pockets).
- Brought Down to Badass: Happens to some Fictions with no access to their canonical powers for some reason-as an example, two of the stories by Mike313 showcase a member of the Champions who happens to be Korra... who doesn't has Avatar powers, and never had them, so she has to make do with being an expert martial artist... and, oh yeah, being an expert Pokémon trainer.
- The story "Legends Of The Fourth Of July" mentions repeatedly that the majority of Mari's powers (which include the capacity to use magic and multiple devices of her armor) have been locked down as part of her parole agreement, leaving her with just the enhanced physical capacity and training regular to a Captain America... which is more than enough to play a One-Woman Army, which she then demonstrates by kicking the crap of anybody who gets in the way.
- Cardboard Prison: It would be pretty much easier to count the amount of prisons in the Core Timeline that don't have some degree of cardboard in its construction or have been inconvenienced by the mass chaos. Exaggerated by Newgate Correctional Facilities For Metahumans,
which have an open prison policy where the inmates can stay out all day as long as they're back in their apartments by curfew!
- Caught Up in the Rapture: What technically happened to 90% of mankind. Emphasis on technically, because the CLULESS Virus just took people away without caring about such things like whether they were righteous or evil or their actual religion. There is no evidence of them having been sent to "different" places during their Vanishing, either.
- Cosy Catastrophe: For those who Vanished during the 23 Hours. For those who stayed behind, though…
- Crisis Crossover: From the point of view of the comic book superheroes in this universe, living within the Coreline is being in the middle of one of these. And it gets crisis crossovers of its own.
- Crossover Couple: A hefty amount of examples appear throughout the various stories. An Alternate of Misato Katsuragi married to an Alternate of Ranma Saotome and an Alternate of a (widowed) Jessica Rabbit married to an Alternate of Maximilian Pegasus are just two of them.
- Crossover Index: All Tropes present and accounted for, Played for Laughs and for Drama. Doppelgänger Crossover is one that gets a pretty large amount of mileage.
- Decadent Court: Very strong examples in Neo-Britannia (Siberia), Italy (with Harkonnen-ruled Venice), Neo-Amestris (with Fuhrer Bradley’s constant scheming to enhance his country) and New Zealand (with the brutal clash of the Middle Earth and Westeros Royal Houses, assisted with automatic weapons and other means (subtle and blatant) of offing people. Wizarding Britain is not exempt, either.
- Death World: Thanks to CLULESS, examples from all of Fiction have manifested throughout the universe (as a specific pair of examples, we could direct your attention to both of the planets called "Pandora". OK, one is a moon, but still...) Those races/factions who care little about humanity (and some who do) also make the convincing argument that EARTH has become a Death World itself.
- Destructo-Nookie: Given that the Core Timeline is rife with superhumans such as Kryptonians, gamma mutants, Saiyans, and more, you better believe that this is a frequent occurrence!
- Earth Is a Battlefield.
- Earth Is The Center Of The Multiverse.
- Eldritch Location: Various places, such as the entire state of Maine (the closest you get to Derry, the worse it gets), and about about a third of the towns called "Springfield".
- The End Of The World As We Knew It: The 23 Hours Of Madness (or “The Vanishing”). Note the past tense-many Pre-Vanishing Humans use it.
- Expendable Alternate Universe: Zig-Zagged Trope. While it's obvious that many people believe this (and there's even a terrorist faction (the "Knights Of The True Timeline") that takes it to its In-Universe logical extreme, exterminating Alternates of Fictional people willy-nilly for the "crime" of deviating from series canon on even the smallest iota and even up to existing), there are a great many who come from those Alternate Universes that scream that (Dimensional) Clones Are People, Too.
- Fantastic Flora: Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables, Magic Mushrooms, and more from every fictional universe out there are to be found in the Core Timeline. The Greenhouse,
a facility operated by alts of Dr. Pamela Isley and Dr. Reginald Bushroot, grows a great many examples of such plants. Dr. Shikigami of the Chicago Branch Avengers also cultivates exotic plants for the Avengers to use.
- Fantastic Legal Weirdness: Multiple things the law has had to deal with now that everything has gone insane.... to provide some examples:
- Superheroes, once registered, can testify in court without needing to showcase their true identities (it is pretty obvious that some of the big-shots like Superman already have them well-known, however).
- Ghosts and ghouls can potentially testify on their own murders or do changes to their wills even after having passed on... however, they need to be extensively tested on such things as their mental capacity (in terms of intelligence—many ghosts are little more than ultra-spooky voice messages or pretty animalistic) and mental stability (so it can be certified that they won't go all The Grudge right in the middle of the courtroom), plus power levels (a ghost that is a Person of Mass Destruction needs extra security in place) and how viable they are as a witness in the regular sense (because lack of information and prejudice can mould people's perceptions even beyond the grave). This has been called "The Anita Blake Rule" on the street, and one of the people who provides services doing this testing are the Ghostbusters.
- Death Is Cheap (well, less expensive at least. Death Is Dramatic, nevertheless) enough that "Do Not Resuscitate" orders now have two levels: "Do Not Resuscitate" (meaning no immediate resuscitation—the person with this degree of order is agreeing to be resurrected in some way afterwards, if circumstances allow it) and DN 2 R 2 ("Do Not Resuscitate Nor Resurrect") Orders, which are Exactly What It Says on the Tin and now pretty stand for what the old DNR orders did.
- Fantastic Racism: Certain characters are lumped into groups and can be discriminated against, simply because of who they are an alternate of. A good example of this is alternates of Mari Illustrious Makinami, who is canonically a Blood Knight Cloud Cuckoolander. As a result of this, alternates of Mari are all perceived as being the same, regardless of their actual personalities. Other characters, such as heroic alternates of famed villains, constantly struggle with the reputation garnered by their evil counterparts. And this is in addition to the "regular" Fantastic Racism types like Drow-Elf discrimination (and Elf-Human discrimination), Coordinator/"Natural" discrimination, Mutant/Normal (most probably Marvel Universe "normal"), Wizard-Muggle... rather thankfully, many stories show people working (with good advancements) into changing this, or showcasing that the people who really fall into applying this trope are hard-headed Jerkasses worth ridiculing.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Numerous kinds of magic, along with a large number of Physical God types and other supernatural beings, etc., running around. A lot of magic users actually have to readjust to how all they different mystical forces interact to cast spells properly again.
- Fourth Reich: In-Universe with Neo-Amestris. The whole of East Germany has become overwritten with Amestris (with elements of other Diesel Punk series, like Attack on Titan, including a 300-foot-tall Berlin Wall). Which includes such things like the President calling himself "Fuhrer". While Fullmetal Alchemist Fictions don't really see a problem with it, Reals on both sides of the Wall have a bit of an issue regarding the last time someone in power in Germany called himself "Fuhrer"...
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In-Universe, because it got smashed to hell and gone and let the threats from beyond the screen roam the Earth.
- Genre Savvy: An important survival skill. Whether a character lives or dies for it, or if they're Wrong Genre Savvy instead, is up the individual author / GM.
- Heroes "R" Us: Various examples exist, from government agencies (such as S.H.I.E.L.D.), to the more benevolent of Mega-Corporations (like Stingray Industries, Diggers Technologies, Stark Industries and Wayne Industries), to non-profit organisations with plenty of power (like "The Foundation", the result of FLAG and The Phoenix Foundation pooling resources) to superhero teams (like Avengers Infinity and the Justice League Unlimited).
- Heroes Unlimited: All superhero teams have this going on, but the Avengers Infinity and the Justice League Unlimited have it more than the rest (in the case of the League, it's even right there on the name!). A running sub-plot within Orion Pax 09's "Extraordinary Avengers"/"Cap Mari" stories is the attempt by the A.I. to become even bigger by being more open to Fusion Fic/Super Fic Alternates of characters.
- Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: The setting divides its calendar in Pre-Vanishing and Post-Vanishing years. Like Eclipse Phase, the attempt to not mention the specific year The Vanishing happened is to keep the setting from being divided (too much) by the "Next Sunday A.D." effect.
- Lovecraft Lite: Many people don't get lucky, and it may take some preparation (or a lot of desperation, insanity, or balls), but it is quite possible to give beings as "lovecraftian" as Bill Cipher or the Slender Man a literal faceful of boomstick (or chainsaw, if you feel brutal enough).
- Machine Worship: When the only thing preventing you from being killed by every freak-show monster and maniac on the planet is the gun by your side or the wheels under you, worshiping is something that comes easy... and then there's people who take it way beyond, such as the Adeptus Mechanicus on the Imperium-occupied territories or (in a minor example) The Church of the Angel Combustion (which worships mostly cars, Badass Drivers as "Saints", people who have cybernetic modifications or psionic powers that allow them better driving as being "touched by the Angel", and Cybertronians as the Angel's avatars. The North American "branch" of the Church is run by an Alternate of "Old Man" Fiddleford McGucket).
- Man of Kryptonite: The more regular examples of this Trope (like Metallo) are roaming around, but the Pariah Gene carriers are a more broad-spectrum example of this Trope. The Gene and its carriers have been explicitly compared to the Universe being up to here with folks thinking they can bring "Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!" from their home universes with total impunity, and showing them wrong... with ABSOLUTE brutality.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Very much unapologetically.
- Merged Reality: One third of what CLULESS did.
- Morality Kitchen Sink: There are quite a lot of people all over the morality spectrum on the setting. For the most part, it leans towards Black-and-Gray Morality (people who have flaws and know it and still being on the side of angels vs. the "Mwa-Ha-Ha" Card-Carrying Villain-types that must be stopped) and some Gray-and-Gray Morality (people can beat the crap out of each other because of misunderstandings or being jerks or whatever-no real 'villain' except maybe the guy willing to fight dirtier than everybody else (way too much "dirtier")).
- My Little Panzer: While other examples exist throughout the setting, a specific one appears on "Legends Of The Fourth Of July": The "Fakehuggers", mechanical replicas of the Facehugger that are programmed to act just like the real thing, except that they knock their victims out with non-lethal sonic stunners instead. Meant as a practical joke, the scared reactions of people to the Fakehuggers' attacks (which included various fatal heart attacks) drove their developing company to ruin.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Different universes have different rules, which are literally Depending on the Writer. While most of the basic rules of a universe (and what comes out of it) are based on the series canon that was there from the beginning (ex: Absolute Terror Fields are utterly impervious to conventional firepower, Superman is affected by Kryptonite, etc.); the specifics change, based on stuff like
Fanon or just sticking to one of multiple Retcons (ex: A.T. Fields could be pierced by multi-megaton monster-nukes, or high amounts of Gamma Radiation can degrade the Field; or Terigen Mists are not lethal to Mutants, or Superman is not vulnerable to Kryptonite (but weapons as powerful as an artillery piece could hurt him)...) Individual Alternates of someone (even if they look exactly alike and come from very similar universes) may not have the exact same strengths and weaknesses (or, on the flipside, may despite coming from very different universes).
- Magic users in particular often have a hard time adjusting because all the mystical forces on the Line and the differences between the dimensions mean they have to learn how to cast spells in the new environment, or things can get messed up. And not even the Time Lords have a smooth ride when they try to tamper with the (ever-shifting) laws of time.
- Other Me Annoys Me: A potential hazard of two Alternates of a person meeting. An example of this being Played for Drama appears on OrionPax09's story "Legends Of The Fourth Of July"
, where an Alternate of Mari Illustrious Makinami that has the powers of Captain America is so constantly put down by people who cannot see past the prejudice of her being another Mari that they 1) almost allowed the Big Bad of the story to destroy Chicago (by deciding to ignore her requests for help, thinking them to be fabrications) and 2) have driven her past the Despair Event Horizon.
- It doesn't help that Captain America Mari had recently fought a version of herself that was an amalgam of Deadpool who is every bit the loon that people make Cap Mari out to be.
- Overlaps with Evil Me Scares Me with one member of The Champions (an Alternate of Hikari Horaki with the powers of the Martian Manhunter), who mind-read one of her Alternates (which is fusioned with Bane. The oodles of murderous psycho-crazy inside of her other self's mind nearly drove her insane.
- And another example that overlaps with Evil Me Scares Me (or more like "depresses me") appears on "Regular Dinosaur Park
", where an Alternate version of John Hammond (a Composite Character of the film (and Trespasser video game) canons and the LEGO Jurassic World appearance) mentions his disappointment at being occasionally confused with his Jerkass book version.
- It doesn't help that Captain America Mari had recently fought a version of herself that was an amalgam of Deadpool who is every bit the loon that people make Cap Mari out to be.
- Pirate Ninja Zombie Robot: A quite high possibility of happening, considering all of the available options.
- Pocket Dimension: Some realms connected to Coreline, like Aku's realm or the Pokémon island chains, manifest as these.
- President for Life: Downplayed (and [by the standards of the Trope] rare heroic, and even more unusual having had the "for life" part put in place by the public after electing him into the role in the normal fashion) example with the Governor-For-Life of Michigan: Optimus Prime.
- Punk Punk: The whole breadth of this Trope is represented on The Line in one way or another: there is Fallout-style Scavenged Punk outside of civilization (and the original Mad Max brand over on The Outback); within civilization it is Cyberpunk or Post Cyber Punk (with the occasional splatter of Cape Punk, Fantastic Noir and The Quincy Punk); London and Venice have become Steampunk meccas; while East Germany/Neo-Amestris (as well as other spots like Cape Suzette and Republic City) are full-blown Diesel Punk and the local versions of the Serious Business shows could be considered dabbling on "Olympus Mons/My Little Panzer"-Punk...
- Rage Against the Author: Some Fictions that have arrived didn't take well to the fact that their lives were… well, fictional… on another universe. Some of them have developed a case of this so bad (as in "devolving into an extra of 28 Days Later when close to the author" bad) that there is a term for this: "Authored Rage".
- Real-World Episode: A more apocalyptic variation of one comprises the whole setting. And even after many years Fictional characters keep Emerging, so people still undergo the regular motions of this Trope on a regular basis.
- Reality Bleed: Another third of what the CLULESS Virus did.
- Reality Is Out to Lunch: The other third of what the CLULESS Virus did, on top of the multiversal collision (and the Pre-Vanishing survivors were hit with the harshness of it the hardest). It never fully came back from it, either.
- Retro Upgrade: The availability of technology from all over Fiction inside the setting means that enterprising people have utilized advanced technology to upgrade old (by Real Life and other shows' standards) vehicles and weapons in order to create Ace Custom pieces or simply make a mass-produced new "mark" of the old gizmos. Two examples within the setting are the Stingray Industries "Slammer"
(an updated copy of the AMT Automag V
that works up to par of "modern-day" military-grade combat pistols) and the A-101 "Thunderchild" (or "Razorback")
(an updated version of the A-10 "Thunderbolt" (or "Warthog")
that is widely used for anti-armor/mecha-hunting duties).
- Sci-Fi Kitchen Sink: There's numerous types of fantastic technology available in Coreline, too mant to list here.
- Shout-Out: Multiple:
- The CLULESS Virus. Essentially a Cracker version of the program that started that ball rolling.
- "There Is No Safe, Only Safer".
- The 23 Hours started on November the Fifth. "Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November" has become better known world-wide because of this.
- The first draft of the Opening Narration was essentially a modified version of the Warhammer 40,000 opening narration ("In the Grim Darkness Of The Dark Future, there is Only War"). It still has some of its feeling remaining.
- The "Reipe"-Stingray Industries' utter humiliation at trying to muscle in on the Nobody Dies version of NERV following their version of Rei running amok within S.I. headquarters-is described In-Universe at having been a re-enactment of the Battle Of Mogadishu, with Stingray Security Services playing the Americans.
- Super Fic: Various of the Fan Fics and sample characters made for the setting so far use this. And they're awesome.
- Super-Soldier: Needless to say, with the hodge-podge of technologies and magics and training methods which can make a Charles Atlas Superpower set that are available, there are a lot of these. So far in the stories created, we have seen amongst others: two girls with the Erskine super-serum running through their veins (and DBZ levels of martial arts training), a version of the DOATEC Kasumi cloning project that was similarly enhanced, a version of Anko Mitarashi that was turned by Orochimaru into an Expy of Alucard, an Alternate of Deunan Knute (who is more of the "absurdly Badass Normal" school of super-soldiering) as Anko's partner, an Alternate of Motoko Kusanagi that has reached this classification through sheer experience and demented amounts of determination alone (let alone the Cyborg bodies), and the Stingray Industries Hellsoldier Project.
- Take That!:
- Alternate versions of Peter Griffin are essentially an endangered species on The Line, people so enraged by actions done by him that they have actively hunted him down. This is mentioned on the short story "Semper Paratus" (where one of these actions (which essentially destroyed all of Quahog) is mentioned in the backstory and on the story's "current day" his absurd lack of impulse control killed almost everybody on a mega-yacht and traumatized or crippled the few survivors, while the Alternate of Peter escaped (relatively) unhurt (barring the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown given to him by said survivors)).
- "Legends Of The Fourth Of July" gives no love to Naru Narusegawa (an Alternate of which appears, abusing her power as a parole officer to make Mari's life a depressive hell (although admittedly it is a version with a brutal case of Flanderization)), as well as mentioning in passing that the SWAT Team that Naru brought to arrest Mari (and which Mari then curb-stomped hard) included amongst their number an Alternate of Grant Ward. They are shown two chapters later to have been left inside of a warehouse full of the "Fakehuggers" mentioned above, with Naru being driven to a quivering, praying mess thinking she can feel a Chestbuster inside of her through placebo effect.
- One bad wish too many (whether it was on this universe or on another one, it may never be known) turned Dimmsdale into a hellhole flooded with primordial, flesh-eating ooze.
- In Coreline: Invasion of Portland, when an Inhuman ally of the Aegis Organization who took up the mantle of Iceman learned of the events of ''Death of X'' and ''Inhumans vs. X-Men'', he recalls viewing those events as pure insanity.
- Tempting Fate: A particularly Genre Blind thing to do, which is a bit of a Running Gag.
- Testosterone Poisoning: Look no further than Torgue... pardon me, Torgue-Urdnot. BIG EXPLOSIONS (even their most garden-variety gun is bound to include a Grenade Launcher as an "accesory"), GUNFIRE TEARING TARGETS TO SHREDS, ABSURD AMOUNTS OF STOPPING POWER, gun names and weapons descriptions WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS (yelling on the stores is very much encouraged), weapons designs that either make them look like NASCAR props or look like Rob Liefeld and Jack Kirby had lunch once (and, yes, they actually liked each other's gear designs. Please try not to have a Logic Bomb over that), hiring Hercule Satan as a spokesman (which is only fair, actually) for their version of the Glock "picked
the
wrong
..." ad series...
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: There are many, many ways to fulfill this Trope. One Mega-Corp (Diggers Technologies) even goes as far as to make it an unwritten product standard (what do you expect when Brianna Diggers is one of the company heads? They sell BOLO rip-offs, (relatively) dirt cheap!).
- TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life : Inverted. Good Trope knowledge may very much save your life, depending on the circumstances. In-Universe, TV Tropes has become as important as The Bible and The Other Wiki.
- The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: This is the setting in a nutshell-it’s even on the Opening Narration. Some stories, like The Shikigami Ranger and the Monster Mashers, even showcase full-blown battle sequences that are as insanely Reference Overdosed as the climactic fight of Ready Player One.
- Venus Is Wet: One of the various reality changes done by The Vanishing was the transformation/Terraformation of Venus into a jungle planet out of (and inhabited by) pulp fiction... and which is a hard-core Death World nasty enough that any kind of Nature Hero that lives there (well away from civilization) is astonishingly superhuman.
- We Will Use WikiWords in the Future: And Trope names.
- World Gone Mad: Coreline is considered this by some, especially in the view of many of those who remained in it during the Vanishing.
- World of Badass: You either develop some amount of badassery (specifics don’t matter) or (depending where you live) you’re either a bystander in danger or you’re as good as dead.
- You Can't Go Home Again: There is no known way for a Fiction that Emerged on the Core Timeline to return to the world he came from. So far, all kinds of super-scientists, pseudo-gods and literal gods have tried to find a way, but have not been able to. And there are many people who are despairing because of this (and many that have decided to take this opportunity to make a new life for themselves).