Louise: Tame? You call a land with giant scorpions, giant wasps, bandits, murderous soldiers, and Night Stalkers roaming tame!?
Joe: Yes. Compared to lands where tornadoes can rage for days on end, where radiation is strong enough to send a glow into the night sky, were civilized soldiers are nowhere to be seen among savages who wear the skins of their enemies as blankets, I think the Mojave is quite tame.
After failing the summoning ritual, Louise is transported to an old and battered world, full of suffering and conflict. War never changes, but people do. As the world changes her, Louise wonders about her future, the people she meets, and the impact she is to have on this world.
The Fall is a crossover between Fallout: New Vegas and The Familiar of Zero written by Jeggetts
. It can be found on Fanfiction.net, SpaceBattles and on Sufficient Velocity. The author presents it as a deconstruction of the "Reverse Summons" The Familiar of Zero fanfiction trope, often pointing out the flaws in some other fics using the same trope "Louise (the MC) performs the Summoning spell, only to be dragged to [insert universe]".
The Fall contains examples of:
- After the End: The Fallout world in a nutshell, after a nuclear war. Though civilization out west has recovered enough to form the NCR.
- Alien Sky: Inverted. Louise is used to looking up in the sky and seeing two large moons, one red, the other blue. Post-Summoning, she finds the moons have gotten smaller, whiter, and that one is completely missing.
- Angst? What Angst?:
- An in-universe example with The Courier, instead of seeking revenge on the guy almost killed, or even being mad about it for that matter, he just brushes it off, moves on, and says if their paths cross again then they'll see, to the confusion of others.
- The Courier does not seem all that mad about the NCR killing off Goodsprings. Louise angrily calls him out on this.
- Armies Are Evil: Averted with the NCR. People mention that they mean well, despite their grievances with them. Even during the sacking of Goodsprings, a good number of them refuse to take part in it, with two trying to talk Hank Morrigan, the leader, out of it, though they end up getting shot for their troubles and the rest scared into submission. Even Morrigan himself is a rather ambiguous example, as he expresses clear horror at what he's done in the following chapter, though he does engage in a cover up.
- The Bartender: Louise becomes one to support herself, or rather an assistant to the main owner of the Prospector Saloon, Trudy.
- Beef Gate: Lampshaded. People point out how Goodpsprings was in a relatively safe region, but now all of a sudden, dangerous beasts have begun popping up between it and New Vegas, such as Cazadors, Night Stalkers and Deathclaws.
- Big Damn Heroes: Averted. During the hunting trip, two people called for help while being attacked by geckos. Sunny, Luke and Louise all rushed to help, but were too late to help them.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The world of Fallout is home to no shortage of these. On her first day on Earth, Louise encounters Bloatflies and a scorpion roughly her own size. On her second day, an even bigger scorpion chases her into Goodpsprings, requiring a few people to put it down. On her third day, she hears of Cazadors, giant tarantula hawk wasps that have infested the road north of the town. Sunny warns that their venom is not something you want to be hit with, considering they were capable of downing a full grown man before they mutated.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Vipers. They are a snake worshiping cult that uses a drug to make people go crazy and convert to worshiping the "Great Snake".
- Break the Haughty: Louise goes from a proud and somewhat stuck up noble girl to almost dying in the desert and having to rely on the kindness of others to survive.
- The Bus Came Back: As of the end of the first Arc, the Courier is back from his leave of plot absence and looking to be a major focus alongside Louise.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: On top of brushing off the fact he almost died from a double headshot, the Courier is also surprisingly casual about defeating a giant rad scorpion by jumping on it and even calmly implies he somehow crossed over the Atlantic Ocean at some point.
- Crossover: Between Fallout: New Vegas, and The Familiar of Zero.
- Cult: The Vipers are a bunch of people in the desert who had their brains fried by pit viper venom from a giant snake and now worship said snake. They are always looking for new members, and they don't care at all if people are willing or not. Or indeed how old they are.
- Deconstruction Fic: The author has expressed discontent with the way Reverse Summons stories handle Louise's adjustments to a new world. Usually, they neglect to mention how biologically rough it would be, or Louise seems to throw herself into the line of fire without first looking for safer ways to survive. In this fic, Louise is unused to the radiation levels which necessitates her having a constant supply of Radaway, and she takes up a job as a waitress to support herself and actively avoiding any and all combat scenarios as long as she can. In short, she doesn't go out and buy the shiniest sword, best gun or armor, she's going to be sinking most of her money into medicine, and basically works a regular nine to five job. She has gone on a hunting trip, but that seems to be the only combat she's ever wanted to subject herself to.
- Democracy Is Flawed: Louise holds this view on the NCR. She's heard of multiple accounts of incompetence from travelers like Harvey and Dani, and other accounts of how in some ways, they were no better than corrupt Nobles back home as Otis tells here one day they showed up to his farm and declared they were under NCR rule now and forced to pay taxes even though they received scant protection unlike the more wealthy Barons in NCR territory.
- Embarrassingly Painful Sunburn: Downplayed. While Louise is more vulnerable to the sun, her burns are not often played for laughs, and the other wastelanders don't even poke fun at her for them.
- Energy Weapon: Louise gets a laser pistol from her first hunting trip. She quickly adapts to it as Sunny points out, it has less recoil and noise making it easier to handle than a conventional firearm.
- Freudian Excuse: Kenny, the man in Good Springs most antagonistic and untrusting towards Louise, reveals that it because he has lost several homes and loved ones in the past, partially because he used to be willing to trust strangers. A mistake he is not making again... he eventually reveals that the first time he lost a home, it was due to a woman pretending to need help and a place to stay...
- Fish out of Water: Louise finds herself in a world completely alien to her, filled with creatures one would dream up in a nightmare (or Video Game) and a government her world would consider impractical. She is not used to some elements of Fallout earth on a biological level. Namely, the higher levels of background radiation everywhere, even in a location that escaped the war relatively untouched, like the Mojave. As a result, she is slowly absorbing radiation while merely existing in the world.
- Louise herself balks at the idea of putting herself in harm's way when there are much safer and saner options to earn a living. Like becoming a waitress. So far, she has only ventured out of Goodsprings to go on a hunting trip in order to make herself more useful to the town.
- Genre Blind: In chapter nine, Luke says that Vault Dwellers are not known for being hardcore survivalists. He gets a feeling he's insulted something that ought not be insulted.
- Heroic BSoD: Does Louise instantly begin killing at the drop of a hat when the NCR begin attacking Goodpsrings? No. She freezes up and runs away. As it turns out, unlike some other RS, a girl unused to fighting people isn't going to be much help in said fight, as Kenny himself pointed out twice before.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Kenny, the antagonistic towns person has gotten on Louise's case, saying she will likely bring trouble with her and believes she's not telling them everything. Louise herself admits she is not telling them everything and he's not entirely wrong about that possibility, albeit grudgingly. He get's proven right again on all accounts of her ranging from her inability to fight people, to bringing trouble to Goodsprings, during the Arc Finale.
- Limited Wardrobe: Louise only has her school uniform to wear. Although this leads to her school uniform quickly degrading from being nice enough that others in the wasteland recommend selling it for some easy caps to it barley being any better than the patched of rags others wear.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: On Louise's first night watch she encounters Night Stalkers, a hybrid of coyotes and rattlesnakes. She also tells Kelly and Luke about animals back in her home, like Manticores. It's one of the few times she gets someone else horrified by saying something scary.
- Mun Danger: In a world devastated by nuclear war, with only a newly formed and barely functional republic being the best governing force, and the world infested with mutants and bloodthirsty killers, Louise's most pressing danger... is radiation poisoning. That and getting medicine to counteract it.
- No Biochemical Barriers:
- Averted. Louise has not had the many decades for her body to adapt to the background radiation levels, in a sense "being allergic" to it, as Doctor Mitchell put it. Unlike the natives of the Fallout world. She will require a constant access to Radaway if she wants to survive
- Mitchell himself is an aversion as well, as he mentions having to go through thirty years of needing a constant supply of Radaway on hand after he was forced out of his Vault.
- Nuclear Mutant: Well, this is a Fallout fic, is it not? Big mutant bugs and two-headed cows are the norm in these parts.
- Our Orcs Are Different: Super Mutants, when Louise first hears about them her mind goes in this direction, drawing comparisons between the two.Louise: Big green dumb brutes with a penchant for violence? Those are orcs.
- Papa Wolf: Does the Courier decide to take along a vulnerable girl, considering how much of a badass he is? Nope. He decided to leave her in Goodsprings because he's aware of what a dumb idea it is. He even gently berates Mitchell for suggesting he take her on adventures.
- Pet Monstrosity: Louise eventually adopts a Night Stalker, a genetically spliced abomination between a coyote and rattlesnake.
- Psychic Powers: Jodie, Trudy's friend, is stated to have these. Trudy explains that Jodie helped her survive in her younger years by being able to see into the future and help her avoid dangers, and she is heavily implied to be the Forecasters' mother, a canon Psyker in game. At the end of the first Arc, Louise encounters a Deathclaw tearing apart a NCR trooper, just like a vision she had earlier, suggesting Louise is developing them as well.
- Put on a Bus: The Courier was the main protagonist in the original game, but here, after the fifth chapter he wanders off screen, though there were occasional mentions of him and his exploits over the radio.
- Radiation-Immune Mutants: The vast majority of the Fallout humans, though it should be noted they are not immune so much as they are more resistant to radiation, needing higher levels before they start getting sick from it. The same cannot be said for Louise...
- Radiation-Induced Superpowers: The radiation of the Fallout world has caused some odd behavior in Louise's magic. While it is certainly still lethal, it also seems to have made her magic more powerful and colorful. On the downside, every time she uses her magic, she irradiates herself even more.
- Refusal of the Call: As part of the deconstruction, Louise, unlike other Reverse Summons, does not want anything to do with another world's conflict and goes out of her way to avoid getting involved. When the Lost offer to take her in, she worries about getting dragged into conflict. Even when in Goodsprings, despite Mitchell pointing out benefits of going to Mr. House, Louise refuses because she knows accepting his help will open her up to all sorts of other problems she would rather avoid.
- Shout-Out:
- The very first people Louise encounters a gang who have run afoul of the NCR. Their leader is a man with a shaved head, leather jacket and jeans. The name of the gang? The Lost.
- Kelly, one of the people in Goodsprings, tells some stories of her life before she came to the town, including of a Glowing One ghoul named Laruel and a Super Mutant named Hardy.
- During a night watch a group of Night Stalkers begin surrounding the group Louise is in in an effort to cut them off from the rest. Pete the old man quips "clever girl".
- The Stations of the Canon: Averted. So far, the author has largely ignored the Courier, though he has completed two in game quests. With the destruction of Goodpsrings however, and the authors assurances that the fic will not follow canon, this trope looks to be increasingly unlikely.
- Steel Eardrums: Averted. When Louise fired a modern gun for the first time she drops it in shock at the noise and pain, noting that Halkegenia's flintlock pistols were nowhere near as loud.
- The Stoic: The Courier, Joe, is usually very calm and collected stating things with a matter of fact bluntness. Him being in his fifties while surviving in a Death World means he's likely seen much of what it can offer and knows how to work around it.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 15 Arc Finale. The NCR come into Goodpsprings and kill all the residents there, burning down the General Goods Store, and driving Louise into the Wasteland. As of this writing, she is now on her own...
- Wretched Hive: Nipton, just like in the game, has a bad reputation. However, it's the only other town in the Mojave that does not have a permanent NCR residence, which forces Louise to head there.
