Power Rangers Clockwork is a Script Fic written by Arcadiarika, set in the same universe as Super Sentai vs. Power Rangers: The Liveblog. As per the writer, it's an adaptation to the Skyrim mod Clockwork and the Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV movie Clash! The New Super Warrior.
One year after the events of Super Sentai vs. Power Rangers IV, Arika/Ultimate Goddess Arcadiarika and her world's version of Carter Grayson find themselves in a tunnel that leads to a grand castle, Urverk Castle. After finding Sean Johnson/the Ultimate Red Legendary Ranger, they discover secrets about the castle and an unfortunate family who once lived there. From there, they must find a way to escape, before a specter claims their souls forever.
It can be read on Tumblr here
, Wattpad here, and Archive of Our Own here.
Tropes Associated to Power Rangers Clockwork
- Actor Allusion: All involving the
Hypothetical Casting of the characters.- Chapter 3 has Brynja Velothi say, "You really think you can escape...don't you?", in line of one of Scrap Baby's linesnote in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator. Scrap Baby is voiced by the chosen Hypothetical Casting of Brynja, Heather Masters.
- In Chapter 7, Aricin Velothi was described as being a "vicious undead juggernaut" prior to seeing his true personality. His hypothetical actor, Buddy Murphy, gained the nickname of "the Juggernaut" for defeating most of the roster back on 205 Live.
- Starting in Chapter 5, Ari!Carter Grayson ends up getting controlled by Aricin Velothi, who by then is a corrupted spirit. This is not the first time his hypothetical actor, Drew Gulak, played a heroic character who became corrupted by an evil group: back in CHIKARA, Soldier Ant appeared as a brainwashed member of The Flood. And much like how the rest of the Colony tried to snap Soldier out of his brainwashing, Chapter 6 even has a "I Know You're In There Somewhere" fight as a nod to it, courtesy of Arika and later Sean, only this time their efforts stuck, albeit with great difficulty for everyone involved.
- Chapter 3 has Brynja Velothi say, "You really think you can escape...don't you?", in line of one of Scrap Baby's linesnote in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator. Scrap Baby is voiced by the chosen
- Adaptation Name Change: Lahar and Lamashtu/Shadow from the original mod are renamed Asgaut and Brynja Velothi in the story. And from Clash! The New Super Warrior, Beast-Demon Hunter Zeek is renamed "Undeath Hunter Zekar", with "Zekar" being a corruption of "Seier", "victory" in Norwegian.
- Apocalyptic Log: Chapter 2 focuses on Asgaut's journals, detailing his life from when Velothi Castle was constructed to a strange death and subsequent revival of a worker. They also revealed some disturbing fates later on. A few years after the incident with the revived worker, Aricin was struck with a piece of metal, and over the course of several months, he succumbed to poison. Asgaut later faced the same fate, only it took years for him to die, and was suited into strange armor in order for him to reach immortality. And Brynja, who had slowly descended into madness thanks to the whispers of Delarium, has had a hand in those actions.
- Brought Down to Badass: Because of Brynja's influence, Arika, Ari!Carter, and Sean all lose their powers the moment they are teleported to the tunnels. Unlike in IV, Arika retains her memories and personality, while Sean loses his own memories of who he is. And despite it, Arika and Ari!Carter prove why they're Rangers when they fight against the skeletons in the very first chapter, with the latter being able to slash through enemies after acquiring a sword.
- Came Back Wrong: Anyone who died in Urverk Castle or Durina would either have their gilded skeletons injected by the Remnant or serve as one of the many crystalline hearts Aricin/the Gilded Amalgam would use. Starting from when one of the workers died and was injected into a suit of armor, going berserk and nearly killing the family and workers until a mage put him down, and continuing all the way to Ari!Carter getting killed and his body used as Aricin's final host, everyone turned into mindless crosses between robots and undead creatures. All except for Asgaut, who simply lost his memories, but never suffered the same fate as his entire family and the victims.
- Death-Activated Superpower: The Zekar Crystal chooses its wielder when that holder has already died. If anyone else holds it, the strain kills that person. The first holder nearly died when the Crystal chose him, but after fighting the Delarian King, he died for good, the strain being too much. Ari!Carter fared better, since he died at least twice before becoming the new holder of the Crystal.
- The Ghost: Aricin Velothi, only described in the journals in Chapter 2 but has not made an appearance outside of a painting until Chapter 7.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Chapter 6 has Arika trying to have Ari!Carter, by then an undead, vicious automaton, come back to his senses. He does, only long enough to ask the heroes to kill him, believing that it would be the only way to stop Aricin from taking over his soul and body completely. Uniquely, in the same chapter, Ari!Carter himself tries to do this to Aricin, telling him that the heroes are trying to help him. Only in Chapter 7, where we see Aricin's true personality, do we see why Ari!Carter would say those words.Ari!Carter: "Aricin! Stop! They’re trying to help you–AAAAAAHHH!"
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Arika and Ari!Carter appearing in the story gives away what their fates are in IV: that the former regains her memories, personality, and powers, and the latter's brought back to life, albeit in a new body.
- Meaningful Rename: Like in the original mod, the castle used to be called "Velothi Castle", but due to the metal used for the rooms and the portal, as well as how hard the Velothi family worked on said portal, it was renamed "Urverk Castle". "Urverk" roughly means "Clockwork" in Swedish, even though the story takes place in Norway.
- Minimalist Cast: There are only six named characters featured in the story: Arika/Ultimate Goddess Arcadiarika, the Carter Grayson of her world, Sean/Ultimate Red Legendary Ranger, Brynja, Asgaut, and Aricin Velothi. As well as countless unnamed Gilded Automatons.
- Named by the Adaptation: The Amalgam in the original mod is renamed Aricin Velothi in the story, as a result of the latter being given a backstory before his own transformation into the Gilded Amalgam.
- "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: "And soon, another page of the tale will be revealed", altering the same catchphrase from Seijuu Sentai Gingaman.
- Related in the Adaptation: In the original mod, a character known as Amalgam has no relationship between Lahar and Lamashtu. His equivalent in the story, Aricin Velothi, does, being the son of Brynja and Asgaut Velothi.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ari!Carter's reaction when Asgaut tells the Rangers that they are trapped in the castle in Chapter 2.Ari!Carter: "You mean to tell us we’re trapped here? Yeah, no, I’m sorry, but this is one of those times where I have to say this…
…I heard y’all out, I think y’all are fucking insane, I’m outta here!" - Shout-Out
- The sword Brynja gifts to Aricin is named "Mezzanine", which is taken from the album of the same name by Massive Attack.
- Ari!Carter's response to Asgaut, as seen above, is based on Joel Rawlings' reaction in the first episode of Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue.
- The remnant featured in the story has the same properties as the remnant in Five Nights at Freddy's, in which it's used to bind a soul after death, and it breaks down in high temperatures.
- As with the original mod, the dialogue the Gilded Automatons and Aricin say are taken from various song lyrics, some of which nod to a few wrestling themes.
- Similarly in Chapter 6, one of Aricin's lines is "bittersweet, but fitting", a nod to one of Scraptrap's lines in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, which is itself a shout-out to the WWI poem Dulce et Decorum Est.
- Title Theme Drop: The Velothi family's character theme, "Fleshless" from Enderal, can be heard in scenes outside of the family's appearance twice: in the opening narration as the intro, then in the Sick House as "Nature of Humanity" in Chapter 6.
- Two Guys and a Girl : Arika/Arcadiarika, Ari!Carter Grayson, and Sean. With Ari!Carter disappearing in Chapter 4, however, Arika and Sean are the only two survivors. Ari!Carter rejoins them in the finale.
- Was Once a Man: All the Gilded Automatons were once humans who either tried to search for the family or plunder the tunnels and castle of rumored riches, or were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. After Brynja and Aricin/the Gilded Amalgam killed them, they created a process to fuse their skeletons into armor and inject them with the Remnant afterwards.
- Aricin Velothi also was once human until Brynja poisoned him, flayed him after he died, outfitted his skeleton with armor, and then let the lava fuse his skeleton with the armor, becoming the Gilded Amalgam. Anyone who was made into a new host for Aricin suffered the same fate, as Ari!Carter proved in Chapters 5 and 6.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To the Skyrim mod Clockwork, as stated by the writer. It also adapts a side quest from the mod by making it a part of the overall story.
