"A dubious case with a shaky explanation, questionable sources and shadiness up the wazoo? I really need to take a look at that weakness I have for blondes."
— Colin Aston
Two Keys is an online manga created by Chloe Chan and Aliena Shoemaker, authors of another successful web-manga, Honeydew Syndrome. It can be read in its entirety on Tapas
.note It used to update on the fourth week of every month with new chapters, but updates have stopped since December 2016.
The story follows Colin Aston, an antisocial diner owner with a Mysterious Past who apparently used to be a mediocre Private Detective. When an equally mysterious blonde from the AFIA shows up with a job only Colin is capable of performing, he reluctantly accepts, despite knowing full well it will thrust him back into the world of the Occult. Colin faces sorcerers, politicians, and little old ladies... and a secret that destroyed nearly half the city and hits a little too close to home. The setting was inspired by Robin McKinley's Sunshine.
Tropes Appearing in Two Keys:
- A God I Am Not: The Titan, said this almost word for word in the form of a Badass Boast. It's still unclear what exactly the Titan is.The Titan: I am not a God. If I were, I wouldn't be the healing kind. I was summoned to fight a war.
- Badass Normal: Lucas tends to be pretty on top of this Occult stuff despite being a Muggle.
- Bar Brawl: Chapters 8 and 9. Furniture smashing everywhere!
- Bizarrchitecture: Fortress West seems to be this. At any rate it appears to be predominantly populated by alleys.
- Black Eyes of Crazy: or magic, or something. Colin's sclera turn black after fending off London's mental attack. Seems to happen when ever he does his superpower Titan things.
- Black Eyes of Evil: The Seraphim have these. Lucas finds them unsettling.
- Blatant Lies: Colin, trying to dodge the subject. Lucas catches him on it but is so impressed by his quick-thinking in cooking up plausible explanations that he gives him a pass.
- Bounty Hunter: London and McKenzie as well as some other Occult.
- The Casino: various ones owned by the Seraphim. Paradigm in particular.
- Changeling Tale: Flicka's story. She's an Occult whose real parents switched her with a human child after killing the baby in a spell to make her look like a human.
- Crystal Ball: Lucas wants one for Christmas.
- Easter Egg: Hovering your mouse over some of the pages in www.two-keys.net will show you hilarious alt-text.
- The Faceless: London. he always wears that helmet, so we don't know what he looks like.
- Fantastic Ghetto: Fortress West a huge slum overflowing with Occult.
- Fantastic Racism: Humans toward the Occult, despite the fact that there is so much Occult blood flowing around that no one in this story qualifies as strictly human. Flicka notes that full Occult aren't allowed to go to her school.
- First-Person Smartass: Colin can be quite the Deadpan Snarker in his head. Outside his head, too.
- Friend on the Force: Lucas and Audrey for Colin, though 'friend' might be pushing it.
- Fortune Teller: Madame Fortuna. Colin calls her Miss Misty.
- Government Agency of Fiction: The AFIA, which has the primary goal of "rectifying" Occults.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- The Seraphim. Generations of interbreeding in order to maintain the "purity" of their bloodline has allowed them to keep most of their original abilities and is one of the reasons why they are practically running Fortress West, but now they're dying from a disease that solidifies them into stone. While they're still alive. It was stated by Colin that this was directly caused by them interbreeding for centuries.
- Also, the Occult. Apparently the summoning was meant to help them win the Jinx War. Ended up forcing them to surrender.
- Loophole Abuse: Occults are technically illegal but a loophole in the law allows them to live in an area known as Fortress West without persecution from the cops or AFIA.
- Mysterious Past: Everyone, pretty much, by virtue of the fact that we just don't know much about them but especially Colin.
- That Mysterious Thing/ Noodle Incident: Something happened to Colin seven years ago. We don't know what, though.
- Private Detective: Colin used to be one. He's even got the Private Eye Monologue.
- Psychic Powers: London seems to have some kind of psychic powers that mess with Colin whenever he's around.
- Psychic Nosebleed:
- Of the ear-dripping variety, in the second confrontation between Colin and London, Colin's ears bleed.
- It gets worse when he starts pushing himself. in later chapters blood starts coming out of his mouth.
And eyes.
- Refused the Call: Colin a number of times, none of them stick. Oh Colin, when will you learn?
- Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: The Titan. Apparently the conduit is the person shaped can.
- Shout-Out: To the creators's other comic, with Colin's phone contact list being full of the names of the main characters of Honeydew Syndrome.
- Tears of Blood: Colin gets them briefly in chapter 22 while arguing with a Seriphim.
- The Trickster: Solder.
- Threshold Guardians: Literal examples in the guards outside of Fortress West.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human??: Not explored in depth yet but a definite theme.
- Yaoi Fangirl: A Paradigm casino worker who saw a nice bit of ship tease between Lucas and Colin.
