My Superhero University | Season 02, Episode 01: Where Everything Isn't Meant To Be Okay
Shane (Narration): could be the school was looking to bring in more new blood. He had to wonder how wise it was. The villains were dialing everything up.
Perry: "I help ghosts! Have lots of friends on the Other Side. Meet Rollo, Lucky, Pip, Buddy, Pancake—and Geistcutter! Say hi, Geistcutter!
Geistcutter: Hi. Geistcutter....All jokes aside, I'm Geistcutter. I kill wraiths and great evils. Salutations, traveller.
Evelyn: We're all a little weird here. I'm... Evelyn. Nice to meet you, Cole.
Martin: One classroom that doesn't look like a frat party happened the night before I think...That maybe we should talk to our teachers about the level of drinking that goes on around here. Hold an intervention or something. Because this can't be healthy...
Mahvash: ♫Wake up. Break the rules. Rock the boat. Make Love. Fall over laughing.♫
Mikael: I'm going to make an executive decision and vote you get out of Martin right the fuck now...Because quite frankly I don't trust you as far as I can throw you. And for the record, telling someone who's never met you that you love them is creepy as shit.
Evelyn: I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry... I ruined it... I-I've killed you... I-I'm so sorry...!”
"Love": And don't worry, even those of you who are leaning more to the dark side have my love. Unlike other deities I don't discriminate in the slightest. Vampire, demon, lich, all of you are my precious loved ones.
Jumping Bean: We have a case of unauthorized possession, suspected to be consensual but terms unknown and ambiguous. Any assistance that could be given would be welcome, but do not harm the vessel!
Jumping Bean: Organizing an unsanctioned public gathering, unauthorized summoning of other Heavenly entities into the Celestial Bureaucracy, trespassing on rooftops without proper chi techniques... This trouble's all on my head! So unless you plan on taking my 35 lashes for me, I suggest you back off so I won't hold a grudge!
Narration (Warning not suitable for Children under troping age): A palm to the teeth. Straight to the teeth. Several had come loose. Her body was already wracked with trembles of panic. This was a nightmare. This had to be. Her teeth were falling out in clumps of gum. Everything else was drowned out into veiny blackness. Her vision went brown. Tunnelled. She felt sick. She was afraid it'd push the rest of them out.
Jumping Bean: It is the duty of gods to sacrifice, not pass the responsibility off on mortal pawns! I am expendable anyways! I was born from a bean and animated with divine magic! You are mortal, Martin! You owe nothing to any Heaven or god! YOU HAVE A CHOICE! A CHOICE THAT I DO NOT!
Mikael: You know, if you led with that, I doubt we'd have had this whole mess. I have no qualms with you killing that so-called Goddess for her strength, but I question how powerful she really is. After all, she did nothing to stop the monsters who ravaged the city and killed the Saint. If such a being is either unable or unwilling to stop evil, then why call them a god in the first place? I'm paraphrasing... Epicurus, I think it was, but you get the point.
Chibuzo: Mr. Snow... Just because a god showed up and wanted to promise you a good life or good powers or good bleedings, it doesn't always mean that accepting their offer will lead to good results... It could change your life in various negative, bittersweet ways, like death... And that's what happened to me... I was born a miserable orphan, and a god, a trickster deity, to be precise, decided to make me his pupil. At first, he seemed proud of me...But then, when we finally found that wish-maker's oasis, he instantly revealed his true nature, with his wish of gaining more power... HE USED ME! ...Is it really worth throwing yourself into a extremely incandescent 'fragment' of the universe-creating energy burst just because this goddess... has openly depressed that she is incapable of carrying out her duty as a love deity?
Mason: Whatever the actual fuck Mother is. The more space between us, and this place, and that, the better. So...
"Zach": I can't believe you'd think for a moment ANYONE could trust a murderer - a mercenary like you. You're a moral reprobate.
"Shane": Don't be whining like that man. This is you. This is all you. This is all you ever were, and all you'll ever be. You'll NEVER be sung for your heroics. You're just going to be a two bit torturer and athletic scumbag. But hey. At least you enjoy it.
Sally: So, I don't know what to decide because either way, it does scare me. On one hand, I am scared that if I do, something could go wrong and that there may be nothing left of my personality. But if I don't, I will outlive you and my other immortal friends at this point. I'm just so scared and I don't know what to do.
- Short Synopsis: Sorcery Class with Bozo. And that's it. Well, he sends the class on a trip across dimensions for a simple visit.
- First Post: 6 May 2019
- Webcomic Time: 13 December 2020
Tropes - Unmarked Spoilers Below
- Acid-Trip Dimension: Bad trips. Made of the class's nightmares. Enjoy.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Lily, the first time. After that, she just accepts it.
- Alien Geometries: Cole accidentally created a flower for Evelyn that invoked this - it has more dimensions than is standard, and it is internally as large as the school itself.
- Alternate Self: A recurring theme of this arc; a number of the Horsemen are evil versions of the heroes (and an even eviler and more smug Elim), the Fear Dimension Squad 1 went to had some evil alternate versions of the heroes themselves to torment them, and Cole is familiar with alternate versions of the heroes from his universe (including a Wendigo Perry serving Alpha-Leunis as a guard, and an evil Aaron). It fits with the theme of alternate dimensions.
- Ancient Grome: Squad 4 goes to a world heavily themed on Ancient Rome...ruled by a version of new guy Cole's archnemesis Alpha-Leunis.
- And I Must Scream: See No-Holds-Barred Beatdown for Lily. This would have gone on forever.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Squad 3's MO get them in trouble when they meet a goddess.
- Bargain with Heaven: The heavenly title does not prevent squad 3 from calling foul on Love's actions.
- Blood Sport: And Lily's the star attraction.
- Brainwash Residue: Jwrenni takes her time coming out of her programming and falls back under at the slightest beckoning.
- By-the-Book Cop: Jumping Bean even quotes the manual during her stay in heaven.
- Celestial Bureaucracy: Squad 3 end up in a heaven. Yay? By the end of the visit, Jumping Bean takes the punishment for running afoul of the heaven's rules. Squad 3 as a whole ran amok really, but JB took the fall.
- Character Tics: Not quite a Twitchy Eye but Lily begins coughing and grunting to check if her neck is still there.
- Civil Warcraft: The 'Love' conflict gets to the point of squad 3 firing on each other. And not the light stuff.
- Claimed by the Supernatural: Wren (or Jenni) turns out to have been somewhere between Brainwashed and Crazy and Viral Transformation. Sure she escapes the nightmare, but missing quite the chunk of lifetime. And only slightly less troublingly, Martin—or rather Love in his body—takes in the 'fires of creation' to become a sort of paladin.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Bozo tells the class that the gods and other realms are creations of humanity's collective thoughts. Not unlike the Warp in 40K. The similarity is a coincidence. Really.
- Come to Gawk: Well, Lily doesn't have to take her nightmare alone. Her entire family and clan watch. With glee at the sport.
- Deadly Upgrade: Clay and the third eye have compatibility problems.
- Good Versus Good: Apparently the heaven conflict. Naturally, squad 3 gets off the lightest of the (onscreen) squads during the nightmare.
- Heroic Fatigue: Shane, Dante, Martin... a few supers are showing the cracks.
- Hot God: Love makes sure to emphasize it, in direct contrast to Chibuzo's monstrous transformation.
- Intangible Theft: Mikael finds out that Renegade took the memories of his first moments with Ellie. And replaced them with his laughing face.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: No one in the class expects the field trip to be just a field trip.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In the first moments, Lily loses teeth and gum then her jaw in a one-two punch. By the time squad 3 catches up with her, Lily's father is ramming her head into the wall ans making squelching sounds. And that's just one scenario out of many. Very very many. In front of an audience. And never ending.
- Out of Focus: The Iridium Wonders, due to rl commitments.
- Poor Communication Kills: Squad 3's itchy trigger fingers and "Love's" awful explanation of her actions lead to a chase through the streets. And rising bills and paperwork for Jumping Bean.
- Power Incontinence: Cole's defining problem - he has overwhelming power at his disposal, enough to term himself "Slayer of Death", but its nothing if not...finicky, being run by a Random Number Generator. Either high enough numbers rolled or low enough numbers can put Cole in a lot of pain.
- Protectorate: Wren ends up as this to Ellie.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Just about all of squad 3 show it far beyond their conflict with Love. From Mikael wondering where Love herself was during the Gaea war to Chibuzo pointing out how mighty does not mean benevolent.
- Sad Clown: Dante in particular.
- Scaled Up: Chibuzo transforms into a dracolich to make his point during the heaven conflict.
- Schmuck Bait: To enter the nightmares in the first place, squad 1 had to step through strange doors with their names on them. Alone.
- She Who Fights Monsters: Lily, when 'rescued' sees that her tormentor is vulnerable now... and repeats his line. "Get up."
- Sociopathic Soldier: Shane's nightmare tries to drive him to despair by throwing his mercenary character in his face. Though, the fact that it thought a guilt trip would bother him is an indication by itself that the nightmare was wrong.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Shane's nightmare is a long and very personal one.
- Trash of the Titans: Bozo left his classroom quite the mess.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: For most of the class, the field trip is one long nightmare acid trip.
