"Welcome to Paradise Falls, your wonderful kingdom. I hope your new life is going well? Can’t recall your past relationships, friends, family? Why should it matter? They’re in the past, gone. Just focus on now…"
Paradise Falls
is a play by post game on Gaia Online from the makers of The Biogate. Though it does not follow directly from Biogate in any way (that is known so far) it does feature numerous returning players and moderators.Set in the titular city of Paradise Falls, the premise is that the various player-characters have been inexplicably brought to the city and afflicted with a curse that suppresses their memories and compels them to abandon their old lives and become members of this new society. Only for that curse to vanish suddenly. It is then down to the players to uncover where they are, and why they've been brought here.
Be warned, all spoilers are unmarked.
This show provides examples of:
- 24-Hour Armor: Various characters wear their armor all the time, even when they don't need to. Sapphire Star for example wears their armor at all hours, to the point where nobody knows what gender they are, or even what they look like under all that.
- Badass Boast: Hamza delivers a belter when the water monsters attack the school, and he is riding high on his recently-awakened Stand.
"You dare invade this place of learning, endanger innocents, menace students, and RUIN MY CLOTHES. You have kindled the wrath of Hamza! Now burn in its unrelenting majesty!"
- Blind Seer: Carroll lacks eyes entirely, relying on clairvoyance to see, and wears a blindfold mostly so people don't have to stare at her empty sockets.
- The Blacksmith: Little Miss Forge and Senji Muramasa both contend one another for this title. Muramasa primarily focuses on blades (befitting his history) compared to Little Miss Forge who handles just about everything.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: While not technically brainwashing, Justine's brief interaction with Grima left her twisted and angry.
- Chosen One: Each of the characters that successfully complete a Trial becomes this for the relevant Dragon. At the time of writing these are:
- Drachma (Fire): Ronen Wraithunter.
- Stark (Stars): Yusei Fudo.
- Ultima (Light): Haken Browning.
- The Chessmaster: No fewer than three. Col. Jade Curtiss, Jericho Swain, and Caroll Lua.
- Cue the Sun: Done at the end of the Water Raid, when the storm abates, assisted by Amaterasu.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Dying in Paradise Falls is harder than one would think. While a person can be killed, most will simply reawaken in their home. Those who do die for real, typically have to be killed in a manner similar to Cessation of Existence.
- Don't Go in the Woods: The Dark Forest, the deeper one explores, the more dangerous it gets. Going to far into it eventually causes the person to wake up back in their bed.
- Dragons Are Divine: As mentioned below, the city worships a pantheon of six dragons as their gods. There are other player-characters (Bala and Cynder ) that are actual dragons, though whether or not they are considered divine by the city's clergy hasn't been explored yet.
- Evil Teacher: Beatrice, somehow, got a job teaching children.
- Fantasy Gun Control: Zig-zagged, guns are common and many characters are packing heat, while the city militia mostly use bows and swords.
- Fantasy Pantheon: The city of Paradise Falls worships a pantheon of six Dragons representing fire (Drachma), water (Megiddo), stars (Stark), mana (Zoa), darkness (Dust), and light (Ultima).
- Five Rounds Rapid:
- A natural result of crossing over supernatural settings with more mundane ones means somebody will inevitably bring a gun to a magic fight. Though the game has been balanced to ensure this trope's usual nature is avoided.
- In a specific instance, Bruno actually notes that Hawk's pistol won't do a thing against Metal Seadramon, so Hawk breaks out the armour-piercing sniper rifle, to much better effect.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Hawk, despite everything he's been through, spends nearly 150 pages clinging to the idea that the city is a Soviet psyop.
- Hero Killer: Akito, by gruesomely eating Bruno's heart in front of a crowd of people on the beach.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Due to the nature of being a cross-over roleplay where any person can be brought in, expect to be spoiled on various elements of a story.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The whole city was one for a while, with the curse suppressing the memories of the residents and compelling them to believe the city is some kind of utopia and to form a new life there. Some take the crash back to reality better than others, with Hawk suffering a PTSD attack, Justine breaking down into tears, and Hamza running into the crew of Arcade Spirits still under the effect of the curse and being stricken when they don't recognize him. Ironically, returning to reality is what actually drives many of the characters to investigate deeper to unravel the nature of the city.
- Love at First Sight: Jaden is smitten by Amaterasu the moment they lay eyes on her.
- Mistaken Identity: Amaterasu almost attacks Jaden when she sees them turn from fox-form to human form, thinking they were Ninetails. Neo also has one with Ruby Torchwick, initially not realizing this is an alternate-universe version of Ruby. The realization actually kicks off her Heel–Face Turn.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Hawk puts a bullet through Metal Seadramon's face and successfully drives it away from the docks...forcing it to retreat and fuse with Primal Kyogre to form Primal Metal Kyogre, which Jack Atlas then has to fight.
- Ninja Maid: Carroll's entire household is staffed with these, which freaks Nero out because they all look identical to him.
- Parttime Hero: The Guild is host to plenty of these alongside their normal, full-time fighters.
- Possession Implies Mastery: Challenger, thanks to his centuries of experience as a warrior. Any weapon he can get his hands on he can be guaranteed to be at least a decent fighter with.
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Zig-Zagged. The roleplay generally tries to keep everyone to a relative level, ensuring that no character could, for sure, win against every person they fought against. For balancing sake, most characters have their most overpowered abilities either removed or weakened to not make fights too unbalanced. That said, some characters still maintain their overall power, which makes some more powerful than other characters (such as Nero).
- Refuge in Audacity: Haken Browning earns his title as Ultima's Chosen One via this. Rallying the other participants of the Light Trial to band together and attack Ultima himself after it ended up accidentally adjusted the battlefield to favor one combatant over another. They win the fight, but only because Ultima accepts their resistance as a worthy challenge and makes it a challenge to break through his barrier instead.
- Schizo Tech: The city's technology level is all over the place. Streets are cobbled running horse-drawn carriages, while houses have electricity and functioning showers. Many characters are confused by this.
- Sealed Good in a Can: The Guardian Dragons (mentioned above) begin the story sealed in statues. Though how this happened is currently unknown. And how 'good' they are is debated among characters.
- Stealing the Credit: Stark, and by extension Yusei, are credited with defeating Primal Kyogre. Which Jack Atlas, who did much of the work before Stark arrived, was not thrilled about.
- Take Over the City: Swain's ultimate goal, and one that he is barely pretending not to pursue.
- The War Sequence: The Chaos Raids, massive attacks on the city that require almost everybody to mobilize to drive it back.
- World of Badass: With this many protagonist-level characters present, it's only natural.
