I'm Nobody Cover Poster
I'm Nobody is a Mass Effect and Kingdom Hearts crossover written by free man writer in cooperation with another author named Jebest4781
. It is hosted on fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.
The fic starts when Roxas, only existing for a month at this point, mysteriously gets thrown through a Dark Corridor to the Citadel, where one of the first things he sees is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya bleeding out from her injuries. From there, it's an Inverted Trapped in Another World, where he willingly stays to start an epic journey in which not only Roxas finds himself caught up in the adventure of Commander Jane Shepard and her crew, but they find themselves caught up in Roxas' world(s) as well.
This fic is ongoing, and currently has covered the events of Mass Effect 1. Expect partial spoilers for all Kingdom Hearts games that chronologically take place before Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, as well as some for later installments.
This fic provides examples of:
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- Achievements in Ignorance: Roxas manages to out-trick the best thief in the galaxy... without realising he was being mugged (she keeps trying to steal his munny pouch, only for it to automatically return to his pocket).
- Actually Pretty Funny: Luxord's reaction to Xion calling Demyx the least dangerous enemy they'll face. Though he points out that appearances can be deceiving.
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Thanks to Roxas giving the Organization the middle finger much earlier than he did in 358/2 Days, he averts his and Xion's entire Trauma Conga Line and they're both far more well-adjusted as a result. This becomes visible in moments like his encounter with DiZ or the Internal Reveal that he is Sora's Nobody, as he shuts down the former quickly and has no issues with the latter being secure in his own identity - a far cry from canon.
- Adaptational Badass: In canon, Naminé can only affect the memories of people connected to Sora. In this fic, at Xemnas's request she altered the memories of most Organization members, even though none of them is connected to Sora.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- The Illusive Man and Miranda Lawson are spying on the Normandy crew before their canon appearances in Mass Effect 2.
- Ventus makes a small cameo when Sora and his friends go to Castle Oblivion properly this time. According to the author, this still is before Kingdom Hearts II, while in canon Ventus made his proper non-prequel appearances after that game.
- A few crew members from Mass Effect Andromeda join the Normandy after Shepard is revived.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Ashley doesn't exhibit any of the Fantastic Racism she does in canon. Although that doesn't stop her from trying to kill Wrex in Virmire like the canon, but luckily Roxas guilts her that stops her from doing it.
- Wrex warms up to the crew much faster than in-canon, probably because he has taken a liking to Roxas.
- In canon, at the point of his appearance in Chain of Memories (which is when this fic takes place), Axel was The Sociopath with a complete Lack of Empathy. Here however his characterization is a mix of the classic Nobody apathy and late Days or perhaps even Dream Drop Distance - he's certainly angsting much less than he does in any of the games, which has a positive impact on his behaviour. Then again, the Internal Reveal that everything Xemnas and Xigbar ever told the Organization was a total lie and the fact that there's no backstabbing or Gambit Pileups in the Normandy may have a lot to do with Axel suddenly dropping his manipulative tendencies.
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
- In canon Garrus and Kasumi have next to no relationship other than both being friends with Shepard. In this fic Kasumi starts stalking Garrus shortly after Shepard died, and she's keeping an eye on him on Omega. The two join together.
- Jack accidentally met Alice through her dreams and the two are in pretty good terms (at least enough to have joint battle moves). Jack is floored to find out Alice is real though.
- Adaptational Timespan Change: In this fic Shepard is presumed dead for only one year as opposed to two. However, canon events like Sidonis' betrayal of the synthetic plague happen as if there has been no change whatsoever.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Poor Roxas is at the receiving end of this all the time due to people being endeared by his honest, kind, and innocent nature. Occasional, hair ruffles from Axel, noogies from Shepard and Ashley, the works. During the voyage to Treasure Planet, Silver manages to get Roxas, Xion, and Jim in one all at the same time.
- Aliens Speaking English: The only Kingdom Hearts alien who is not mysteriously a native English speaker is Stitch.
- Alliterative Title: Chapter 16 is titled "Viciously Vivacious Villain on Virmire".
- Amnesiac Hero:
- Roxas fakes being one at the start of the fic since the world of Mass Effect is completely new to him.
- After being trapped in the Realm of Darkness, Shepard forgets everything about herself. The only reason she knows her name is because she found her dog tags. She regains her memories later on after travelling with Aqua for some time.
- Anime Hair:
- The narration describes Roxas' hairdo to be "gravity-defying".
- Lampshaded when Joker asks Axel how much product he puts in his hair. Nope, it's all natural.
- Angrish: Ashley is reduced to grumbling noises after meeting Della Duck and gets too frustrated at the sheer nonsense of the situation.
- Arbitrary Scepticism: Della Duck calls out the Council on believing that the Heartless exist, but dismissing the Reapers as a ploy that Shepard fell for.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Roxas' plan for dealing with anything. Lampshaded when Shepard asks him if he has a strategy other than that.
- Aura Vision: Garrus unlocks this ability after receiving Yen Sid's blessing, letting him see through cloaking devices and other things.
- Because You Were Nice to Me:
- Tali decides to stick with Roxas because he's the only one who cared enough to help her when she was bleeding out when no one else would due to her being a Quarian. This also leads to Roxas becoming the closest to Tali out of the Normandy Crew.
- Septimus Oraka is immensely grateful to Roxas for taking the time to talk with a total stranger about his relationship problems and provide advice, so he's more than happy to do "small" favours for him as gifts - such as booking tables at the last minute in a super expensive restaurant and being recommended to Sha'ira.
- Alice chooses to stay with the Normandy crew even though she could go home at any time because she wants to repay Roxas, Axel and Xion for helping her.
- Bedmate Reveal: Happens twice after the huge wedding party in Helium.
- Shepard wakes up lying on something warm only to realise that it's Axel.
- Roxas wakes up and sees both Tali and Xion cradling him.
- Berserk Button: Larxene completely loses it when Axel calls her by her original name, instantly going on a rampage while demanding to know how they know it.
- Beyond the Impossible:
- While going through Riku's memory of Hollow Bastion, the team somehow stumbles on Sora's memory of Xemnas being there. And on top of that, memory Xemnas acknowledges that Roxas and Xion shouldn't be there, talks about things that Sora had no way of knowing at the time, and adjusts the difficulty of his fight accordingly. Everyone is beyond baffled with all this.
- Alice can somehow touch EDI in her hologram form. And EDI can feel it. The same way organics do. EDI is enthralled.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: After the battle of the Citadel, Organization XIII, one of the many evil parties in the Kingdom Hearts universe, teams up with Cerberus, the Mass Effect anti-alien terrorist group. They do so because they fear the Heartless forming a duumvirate with the Reapers.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- Shepard, Ashley and Axel take a "protective older sibling" role towards Roxas and Xion, though Axel is more of an enabler than a protector at times. Though Axel is quite embarrassed and in disbelief when Yen Sid point out that the other Nobodies consider him an older brother figure.
- Lauriam tries to kill Roxas the second he hears that Ventus had something to do with his sister's death.
- Big Damn Kiss:
- Namine gives it to Riku as a goodbye.
- Although she gave him some kisses albeit chaste when he teleports them to Rannoch in utter gratitude, Tali finally gives Roxas one when she leaves to go back to the Flotilla.
- Big Eater: The entire Normandy crew ends up being this trope, which is lampshaded repeatedly. At first they think it's simply the active lifestyle, but then they realize that it may be their emerging magical abilities.
- Big Fish in a Bigger Ocean: Miranda finds herself in this position after Shepard's revival, as she is completely outclassed in terms of combat and her knowledge of the Heartless is clearly lacking. She didn't even know about Lesser Nobodies.
- Bizarrchitecture: Castle Oblivion, bordering on an Eldritch Location. It has an apparently impossible number of floors, forces you to relive your memories with each floor, has no windows, and generally nothing makes sense about that place. How Pluto made his way in there is anyone's guess.
- Blank Slate: Roxas starts out in this fic barely existing for a month; all he knows is basically how to fight, that he's friends with Axel and Xion, and that he likes Sea-Salt flavour ice cream. Nothing else. Other characters are completely baffled by this due to seeing how young he is, as Roxas is completely emotionless unless expressing curiosity, and not only questions stuff that should be common knowledge in the Mass Effect universe (like the last lines of the first chapter, asking "what's the citadel" while ON the Citadel), but is also unfamiliar with concepts like handshakes and "parents".
- Blatant Lies: The Normandy Crew is trying to pass Stitch for a mutated dog. They even lampshade how unlikely it is that anyone would fall for that.
- Blood Knight: Wrex, who is more than eager for a good challenge, almost gets himself killed because of his attitude because he kept trying to fight Lexaeus when the others made it clear he would not survive the attempt. The only reason he did survive was because Yen Sid's blessings kicked in.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Rael remembers there were quarian suitors who wanted Tali's hand in marriage, an old tradition to strengthen close relations and friendship with families, however, Rael rejected every suitor saying how Tali can decide herself to find her own love that would measure up to her and his standards. That's until he finds out his daughter is in love with a human. He does allow a date between Tali and Roxas before telling him to not take Tali to dangerous places and giving a warning to Roxas, and through grit teeth.
- Breaking the Fellowship: This trope was discussed among the Normandy crew for a while after the hunt for Saren ended, but what put the nail in the coffin was Shepard's death, as each crewmember has to go their separate ways to prepare for the fight against the Reapers. However, they all agree that they are still the crew of the Normandy and will reunite.
- Brick Joke: In chapter 2, Roxas and Tali had an argument over whether or not her emergency induction port is a straw. Come chapter 39, when he tries to use that as a means of identification to enter the Flotilla.Quarian space control: You honestly can't expect me to use that as your means of identifying who you are.
- Broken Pedestal: One of Liara and "Zo's" conversations reveals that Ansem the Wise is this for Zexion, as he used to look up to him as a father and a mentor when he was a child, but then bitterly comments that "he wasn't the man [Zexion] thought he was".
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Wrex really doesn't want to admit that he has a soft spot for the Normandy crew and especially for Roxas. The others tease him over it.
- Bullying a Dragon: A group of very drunk Humans, Turians, Batarians and Vorcha attack part of the Normandy crew plus Nakmor Drack while in a bar for "hurting their friends". The crew tries to warn them but they don't listen so... the result was quite predictable.
- The Bus Came Back: Alice somehow gets to the Milky Way through Jack and joins the Normandy crew.
- Came Back Wrong: It's very heavily implied in many chapters following the destruction of the Normandy SR-1 that Shepard turned into a Nobody after the Normandy crashed, as she can now summon a gunblade out of thin air, notes that she generally feels muted, and more damningly she can hear lesser Nobodies. This is eventually confirmed, though as the first Nobody of her caliber from the Milky Way Galaxy, it's stated that she's a different case in some ways from Axel, Roxas, Namine, and the Organization members.
- The Cameo:
- While Roxas is having an existential crisis and travels to various worlds he saw in Sora's memories to see if they were real, he runs into Tinkerbell who gives him the power of flight.
- Sora and Riku are sent by Master Yen Sid to the Olympus Colosseum to train, when they run into Zack Fair.
- One of the scientists working for Cerberus is Dr. Hojo.
- Chapter 40 has a short appearance of Hannah Shepard attending her daughter's funeral.
- In Chapter 41, the first thing Shepard hears in the Realm of Darkness is Aqua shouting to find her. They finally meet in Ch. 50.
- Camera Fiend: Axel got the habit of recording anything he may find useful or embarrassing.
- Character Development:
- Roxas goes from basically emotionless to being an honest, straight-forward, Hot-Blooded and earnest young man with a bashful and adorable side, though still naïve on many things. The biggest tell is when he gets his own heartbeat. However, his Nice Guy and curious nature remain intact.
- Likewise, Xion goes from similarly blank with some hints of shyness to a strong-willed young woman, this time symbolized by her gaining her own unique keyblade. She also becomes snarkier and teases more, though she blames Axel for that development.
- Surprisingly, Zexion of all people undergoes this even though he's not even remotely a main character. It starts when he meets Liara while gathering intel on the Citadel, and the two start talking about their respective scientific interests and eventually share more and more personal information and strike a friendship (at least Liara views it that way). He's shocked when he finds out Liara is part of the Normandy crew, and begins questioning exactly why Axel, Roxas and Xion left the Organization and openly questions what Xemnas isn't telling them.
- Chick Magnet:
- Roxas finds himself at the receiving end of female attention a lot. It's cute when it's from Tali or Xion, but when it's from those adult Asari maidens or the women from Helium... Good thing Ashley or Shepard are around to diffuse the situation.
- While not quite as much as Roxas, Axel is also considered quite attractive by the ladies. He charms a bar woman into giving him and his friends free drinks, and later Ashley's sisters express their desire to meet him up close because he's hot.
- Combination Attack: Roxas and Xion are capable of pulling of the same kind of "Limit" attacks that Sora could in Kingdom Hearts 2 with the help their teammates. For example, Xion and Kaidan combining her gravity magic with his biotics to create an incredible gravity attack.
- Commonality Connection:
- Joker and Della get along on the basis that they're both Handicapped Badass adventure-loving Ace Pilots. Joker even looks up to Della because the loss of her leg did nothing to slow her down, so he should not let his condition do the same.
- Zexion and Liara connect over their shared interest towards science and their parental issues. Zexion later admits that they're both workaholics too.
- Contrived Coincidence:
- Roxas just so happens to appear at the spot where you see Tali bleeding out in the Homeworld comics. As a result he's the one who helps her out and later follows with her recruitment plotline instead of Shepard although they still meet the commander and go onboard the Normandy.
- Later, Roxas just so happens to stumble across a very incriminating conversation between Xemnas and Xigbar by pure chance that leads to him, Xion, and Axel defecting from the Organization early.
- Some time later, he goes Oblivion to find Axel and finds him just as he's about to challenge Sora, Donald, and Goofy to a fight, and he manages to stall just long enough for Riku and Mickey to stumble on them, on top of the bad guys.
- The Corrupter: Marluxia is repeatedly shown being able to infect things (like ships or skeletons) with Darkness and turn them into Heartless.
- Crossover: Between Mass Effect and Kingdom Hearts, which is a crossover by itself. The fic even includes worlds currently not present in Kingdom Hearts canon, such as Treasure Planet and John Carter.
- Crossover Couple: Tali has been paired up with Roxas (and possibly Xion, going by the pairing tags), while Axel is receiving Ship Tease with Shepard.
- Crossover Power Acquisition: Yen Sid gives his blessings to the Normandy Crew, allowing them to gain abilities and get stronger.
- Cultured Badass: Ashley as per canon, as she has read plenty of classical literature. Which is why she immediately recognizes "Barsoom", much to her shock.
- Cuteness Proximity:
- Tali, Jane, and Ashley hold their squeals when they see the adorable appearance of the Organization XII Moogle.
- Xion and Namine absolutely cannot hold back their squeals upon seeing Pluto and Stitch. Many people are incredulous by their loud girl screams.
- They also find child Ienzo absolutely adorable.
- Dark and Troubled Past: This Shepard has the "survived Mindoir" background - AKA had her whole family killed by Batarian Slavers when she was little. It comes to light when she tries to talk another victim - a woman who suffers from disassociation and maybe DID because of the trauma - out of commiting suicide.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Downplayed. Rael'Zorah, Tali's father, is less than pleased to find out during her pilgrimage that she's fallen in love with a human boy. This makes Rael question whether he was too lenient with Tali, gave her too much freedom, or if the potions she brought back from her pilgrimage were secretly love potions (because clearly, that’s the only explanation for her falling for a human). It's implied he wanted Tali to have a quarian partner instead after her pilgrimage since it would align with tradition. However, he doesn't oppose their date as he sees Roxas to be good character but warning him to not get Tali hurt.
- Dead Person Conversation:
- Shepard's ghost shows up to "tell" - actually gesture - to Roxas that he can do this.
- Strelitzia shows up in the digital Daybreak Town to help Sora, Roxas, and the others return to Castle Oblivion in the real world. When they ask her how that's possible, she replies that the realms of death, dream and memory are all closely connected.
- Demoted to Extra: Since the fic focuses of Roxas' adventures with the Normandy crew, Sora and his friends are pushed to the sidelines for the most part.
- Deus est Machina: The goddess worshiped in Barsoom is all but confirmed to be a Reaper. The Normandy crew pieces it together after hearing one of her preachers delivers a speech that is way too similar to Sovereign's. Later on, her voice is described as cold and inorganic.
- Didn't See That Coming: The memory of the True Darkness did not expect Riku to wield darkness on his own.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Scroop, instead of being sucked into the void of space, is burnt to a cinder by Axel.
- Doppelgänger Link: Sora is the original person, Roxas is his NobodyExplanation, and Xion is a Replica based on Sora's memories. They can all see each other's memories via their dreams. This can be very useful when Roxas or Xion need information they wouldn't have otherwise, but it can also lead to very awkward situations, like Sora dreaming about the time Roxas and Tali made out.
- Double Entendre: After Donald fails to cast a spell because of Castle Oblivion's special rules, Axel mocks him by saying that he shouldn't be ashamed of having performance issues. Donald is enraged. Sora is confused, which leads to Jiminy and Goofy to facepalm themselves of Sora's innocence.
- Double Tap: Shepard orders her crew to make sure Saren is dead after he's shot in the head, to which Wrex responds by shooting so many bullets into the corpse's head that it turns into mush. Roxas questions why doing so is necessary, but Ashley tells him he needs to watch some zombie movies and "when in doubt, double tap". Saren's body turns into a cyborg / Heartless hybrid possessed by Sovereign immediately afterwards, proving the shooting pointless.
- Dramatic Irony:
- When Zexion first started talking to Liara, he had no idea that she was a member of the Normandy, and he's beyond shocked to find out.
- Ephemer points out that the former Organization members wear the same coat as the Master of Masters and Luxu. They immediately question who those two are. Unbeknownst to them, they do know Luxu - he's Xigbar.
- In the same scene, Ephemer says that the Master of Masters and the Foretellers have disappeared for a while now. This is right after a scene of those supposedly disappeared people watching the very same discussion from a nearby building.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- Kasumi and Kenji appear at the first chapters of the fic while Tali is still showing Roxas around the Citadel.
- Miranda is spying on the Normandy Crew after they return from Feros.
- Legion is spying on Tali and Roxas during their visit on Rannoch.
- One of the people sent to the newly breathable Mars is Alec Ryder.
- Nakmor Drack meets some of the Normandy crew members while in a bar.
- Empowered Badass Normal:
- The Normandy Crew gets their equipment modified by an on-board Moogle, with spectacular results. Later, Master Yen Sid gives them innate magical power so they get stronger as they fight like the Nobody trio does.
- For a much darker example, both Saren and Benezia turn into a Heartless upon dying, making fighting them much more difficult.
- Enemy Within: A universal example is the Darkness, which is everywhere. A fragment of it emerges out of Roxas (or maybe Ventus) to attack the Dandelions and Roxas' friends when its attempt to spread discord between them fails.
- Engineered Public Confession: In order to finally make Dr. Bumby confess for the crimes he committed against Alice and her family, she borrows a recording device from Axel, and confronts Dr. Bumby alone. He then proceeds to gloat about all the crimes he committed and how nobody would ever believe Alice because she's a psych ward resident and he's a respected doctor. Axel then knocks him out and they proceed to give the recording to the police, passing it off as experimental technology. This leads to the police getting a warrant to investigate Dr. Bumby's office, where they find proof for several atrocious crimes while the man is still unconscious, and he ends up in jail.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Kasumi assumes Roxas must be some kind of thieving genius to get his wallet back after every time she's stolen it without her noticing. In reality, Roxas never notices the thefts; his wallet is magicked to return to his pocket, so his reaction to Kasumi's declarations of beating him is pure confusion.
- Everyone Has Standards: Wrex says that even the Krogans will not kill people at weddings because they're sacred rituals.
- Evil Former Friend: Downplayed, but Axel can't recall any happy memories with Isa without feeling sour over their fallout due to the Organization.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Saren is convinced that he can make a deal with Sovereign AND control the Heartless. Which is how he ends up brainwashed by Sovereign and turned into a Heartless after his death due to the darkness in his heart.
- Exact Eavesdropping:
- Roxas overhears a conversation between Vexen, Xemnas and Xigbar that they really, really did not want anyone hearing. Vexen notes later that he should make sure nobody overhears those discussions in the future.
- After Roxas defects, Marluxia and Larxene discuss how they should modify their old plan to take control of Sora now that Namine is not around, and their discussion is overheard by Xigbar. He also makes some inner comments about being careful not to be overheard.
- Excellent Judge of Character: Axel can always tell exactly in what mood everyone around him is, catches even the slightest gestures and expressions, and is overall extremely observant.
- Failure Is the Only Option: The Darkness fragment makes it perfectly clear that if the Dandelions use the coffins then the digital Daybreak Town will be destroyed because that's what the coffins were designed to do.
- Faking Amnesia: Roxas spends the first month on the Normandy pretending to have amnesia, because he has no way to explain he was literally created two months ago. It also lets him get away with questioning things that should be common knowledge. He drops the acts when Axel explains everything to the crew.
- Fantastic Racism:
- As per canon, DiZ does not consider the Nobodies real people and doesn't care in the slightest if they live or die, calling them various things right to their faces. Axel and especially Roxas are pretty pissed at that.
- Tali is at the receiving end of this, during and after the end of her pilgrimage by other species - while it is standard treatment of the Quarians, it really shows when she's trying to make business deals over gummi tech, with one notable instance of a Turian company telling her in her face that Shepard took her in as a pity case. Seeing that she's still mourning Shepard, Tali hits her Rage Breaking Point and attacks them with her drones. After that everyone treats her a bit more decently, with humans and Salarians in particular showing her the most respect.
- First Contact: Technically, the Normandy Crew comes in first contact with two new species, them being Stitch and Della, and that's before the mess with Etherium. They cannot use any first contact protocols with Stitch because he's still learning the language, and Della doesn't have the first contact package with her; she working on making one from scratch along with Liara. Later, the Council gives crap to the Normandy crew for not following First Contact protocols even after the visiting aliens point out that the circumstances prevented them from doing so.
- Fix Fic: There are definitely shades of this despite the increased threat level.
- From the Kingdom Hearts side, the events of 358/2 and Chain of Memories never happen or are interrupted extremely early on, leading to Sora's memories never being manipulated, Roxas, Xion and Sora coexisting, and them along with Axel and Namine being free from the Organization.
- From the Mass Effect side, everyone survives Virmire.
- The
author notes on the Barsoom arc say that the intention is to fix everything that is wrong with Disney's adaptation of the original books. - The Wonderland arc is one for American McGee's Alice, on top of being somewhat Lighter and Softer. While it retains the heavy Grimmification of its source material, in this fic Alice is sane but simply tormented by the abuse of her criminal doctor (instead of actually having a mental disorder), Wonderland is real, she gets to put the guy who ruined her and her family's lives in jail, leaves the asylum for good, find people she trusts, ensure her access to her family fortune, saves all her fellow patients, gives her trusted nanny a new better life, and finally let Wonderland heal and return to its former splendor. Earn Your Happy Ending indeed - a very happy ending at that.
- Forgot About His Powers:
- Literally. It's not until the full extent of Saren's forces on Virmire are mentioned that Axel remembers he and Roxas can summon and command Nobodies.
- While Shepard and her crew are stuck in Etherium, the galaxy of Treasure Planet, they spend a lot of time researching ways to adapt gummi technology to get back home. Shepard and a few others go on Captain Amelia's ship while the rest stay on the port, with Axel using the Dark Corridors to act as a go-between. Then someone asks why they couldn't use that power to get back to their own galaxy... prompting a lot of embarrassed Face Palms.
- Foreshadowing: There are many, many moments that show Ventus' memories affecting Roxas, like him recognizing Stitch or figuring out Shotlock without any external input.
- Freak Out:
- The Rachni Queen's questions on the nature of Roxas' existence strike a very deep chord in him, causing him to freak out at the Normandy Crew, go into Heroic Safe Mode for a while, and then flee the Normandy. He only manages to completely get his wits together after overhearing Xemnas and Xigbar's conversation and realizing that Xion is in danger.
- Larxene goes through a complete and total breakdown after Axel calls her by her original name, switching between "attacking everything on sight" and "catatonic".
- Friendly Enemy: Luxord, despite being an antagonist, never attempts to attack Alice, Axel, Roxas and Xion. He appears to have no ill feelings towards them whatsoever (well, in a matter of speaking), and even reads them their fortunes and gives them advice and well-wishes.
- FTL Travel Sickness: Normally this trope doesn't apply, as the only vehicles capable of FTL travel (aka spaceships) are equipped with technology that completely dampens the impact of accelerating to FTL speeds. However, when the Normandy crew is forced to use the Mass Effect relay while riding a land vehicle, they come out from the other end feeling like they've been compressed from all sides. It was a miracle that didn't kill them.
- Funny Animal: Della Duck. That's pretty much the point when everyone gives up on logic. Later they find themselves on Etherium, where most of the population is this trope.
- The Gadfly: Axel.Axel: You don't need emotions to piss people off.
Kaidan: That's... unironically true. - Gambit Pileup: Hoo boy. On top of the at least three plans that Organization XIII had going on at the time of Chain of Memories (that were sort of blown up by Roxas leaving), and the whole canonical Mass Effect issues with Saren and Cerberus, there's also the end of Chapter 7: Sephiroth of all people doing something about his "mother" by using the Thorian, the Organization planning new stuff, and Zexion starting making independent plans. And who knows what's up with the ice cream vendor in the Organization getup.
- The Generic Guy: Garrus describes Kaidan as the least suspicious person he's ever seen.
- Ghost Memory:
- Roxas, Xion and Sora involuntary share memories through their dreams. They use that to send messages to each other and sometimes catch some... more uncomfortable moments too.
- Roxas also subconsciously recalls Ventus's memories, though he hasn't made the connection yet.
- A Glass in the Hand: Roxas accidently crushes some chopsticks in chapter 3. The Chef bafflingly notes they were metal chopsticks.
- Godlike Gamer: Roxas manages to get the highscore on all the Classic Kingdom games on a galactic scale despite never having played a videogame before (granted, they're a collection of minigames, but still). He mysteriously gets a new Keyblade instantly delivered for his effort.
- Godzilla Threshold: A minor one is the Systems Alliance recruiting the dishonorably-discharged AI researcher Alec Ryder to help investigate the atmosphere factory from Barsoom because it contains unprecedented technology. Admiral Hackett makes him promise he won't cause issues - not that he wants to.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: When Axel gives Tali a painting from Rannoch, Roxas agonizes over the best way to top that and makes his first date with the young quarian truly unforgettable since Tali told him to give her the best gift to make it for leaving the crew after he left, although she was just joking. He decides to take Tali see the place that inspired the painting — using the Corridor of Darkness to avoid the geth and letting Tali be the first quarian to walk upon Rannoch's soil after three centuries of exile. While Tali was building up romantic feelings for Roxas, this is the moment where Tali finally falls deep in love with Roxas.
- Great Big Book of Everything:
- Della occasionally references the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, which happens to be this trope's page image.
- While on Treasure Planet, Roxas and Xion find a book that contains everything you could possibly need to know about Keyblades. The two are seen meticulously studying it and applying what they learned from it in later battles.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Della Duck, who sticks with the Normandy crew until she can return home, but doesn't hesitate in the slightest to help with their missions and strike friendships with them.
- Handicapped Badass:
- As per canon, Joker's brittle bones disease hasn't stopped him from being the best damn pilot in the Alliance.
- Della Duck has lost her right leg but still is a badass adventurer.
- Helium Speech: Shepard is extremely disappointed to find out that the people in Helium do NOT speak like this.
- Helpful Mook: Axel and Roxas are still able to summon their Assassin and Samurai Nobodies, which helps a lot in situations where numbers are an issue.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Riku thinks he's not worthy of becoming a keyblade wielder, much to Sora's astonishment.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: There's nothing known about what Sephiroth wants.
- Hollywood Hacking: Omnitools can connect to and hack any system. This includes the computers in the digital Daybreak Town recreated by Castle Oblivion.
- Hope Bringer: Nakmor Drack admits that being told by a Spectre, a Turian and an Asari of all people that someone is trying to rebuild the Krogan and that he should go help brings him a little hope when he had none.
- Human Aliens: There are actually humans living and originating from planets out of the Milky Way galaxy.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Nobodies. Starting from the fact that Roxas can use magic and run up walls, Chakwas discovers through a physical examination that he seemingly has no upper strength and stamina limits that she can find, and he has no detectable heartbeat whatsoever. Some others like the Rachni Queen and Sovereign outright call the Nobodies anomalies that came from nothingness and should have never existed, and the Normandy crew openly admits that they don't understand what the Nobodies are even supposed to be and call them abnormal (though they mean nothing malicious by it).
- I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Kaidan and Liara admit to each other that they both have feelings for Shepard, but they can see plain as day that she doesn't see either of them that way and gets closer and closer to Axel. As they talk about it they say that they're okay with it as long as he makes her happy.
- An Ice Person: Kaidan gets the ability to combine ice magic with his biotics, though it's quite draining to him.
- Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: Combined with Took a Level in Badass, after leaving the digital Daybreak Town and having to fight Larxene and then half of Organization XIII, Roxas brings out his second keyblade, Oblivion.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: There is a lot of technology swapping between the Normandy crew and the various worlds and galaxies they find themselves in. They integrate Gummi tech into the Normandy, and over the course of the fic they get technology from Etherium and Barsoom. They also hand over technology, such as the Omnitools which everyone finds extremely useful.
- Insistent Terminology:
- From the second chapter, Tali's "emergency induction port". Tali has to keep insisting it's not a "straw".Roxas: Tali... that's a straw.
- Stitch isn't a pet, he's the mascot.
- From the second chapter, Tali's "emergency induction port". Tali has to keep insisting it's not a "straw".
- In Spite of a Nail:
- On the world of Treasure Planet, Shepard spots and disables Flint's that would destroy the whole planet, but the fight with the Heartless still triggers it anyway.
- Just like canon, after the Citadel invasion each member of the Normandy crew goes their separate ways, with Wrex returning to Tuchanka to reunite the clans, Tali finishing her Pilgrimage, etc.
- Despite all the upgrades and abilities gained by the Normandy crew, the Normandy still gets destroyed while hunting the Geth post the Citadel invasion. The main difference is that Shepard is trapped in the Realm of Darkness with amnesia as opposed to dying.
- Even though the Nobody trio and Namine are no longer under the control of the Organization, and have far more positive character development, the fact that Xion siphons power off Roxas doesn't change.
- Sora and his squad along with Riku still decide to go through Castle Oblivion, though this time they work together along with the Nobody trio and Namine, and they do so for entirely different reasons.
- Riku still decides to leave on a journey on his own to control his darkness.
- Insult of Endearment: Axel calls Roxas and Xion little zombies (though they grow out of it).
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: It's implied that Axel and Garrus subjected a Thern spy to one after he declares he won't talk.Garrus: Oh good, the hard way then. I admit my interrogation skills in that matter are a tad rusty, but I might get something out of him.
Axel: And I'll be glad to assist.
[Smash Cut] - Journey to the Center of the Mind: What starts as Liara trying a simple mind meld with Roxas turned into the whole Normandy getting dragged into Roxas's Station of Awakening before diving into the Hearts of all crewmembers before eventually landing on Ventus's Heart.
- Just One Man: A variation. When Udina hears that the Organization only has 13 members, he asks why they're a big deal. The Asari councilor points out that one of them caused an earthquake in the Citadel.
- Klingons Love Shakespeare: In an omake Wrex says that humans are really good at making shooter games.
- Last-Name Basis: As per canon, everyone calls Shepard by her last name. The only exceptions are Captain Anderson, who is very much like a Parental Substitute to Shepard when off-duty, and occasionally Axel.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When the Normandy crew finally confronts Saren on the Citadel, Axel snarks that this screams video game final boss. Which it is.
- Limited Wardrobe: Roxas only has his Organization uniform and nothing else. Eventually he gets a new outfit by Edna Mode which is a recreation of the clothes he wore when he first woke up in Twilight Town.
- Like Reality, Unless Noted: The universe of Mass Effect follows the same world history as real life (up until the discovery of Eezo) with one crucial difference: the company known as Disney never existed. The company. NOT the fairy tales, books and legends it adopted. This becomes very important as the fic goes on.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- Xemnas and Xigbar chose to hide the real reason why Axel, Xion, Roxas and Naminé defected. They simply let everyone think that they found out about the Replica program, and reiterate the answer even when other members of the Organization - Zexion in particular - start questioning if there's more to it.]]
- Apparently Organization XIII didn't tell Cerberus about the existence of Lesser Nobodies, something that disturbs Miranda quite a bit after they face them in combat.
- The Illusive Man and Miranda keep Cerberus' involvement with Organization XIII a secret since they know the Normandy crew is opposed to them.
- Mad Scientist:
- Axel calls Vexen a real nutcase.
- Dr. Hojo, very much so. That man is a nutjob even by Cerberus standards - he considers everyone and everything a test subject and nothing is off-limits.
- Magic Knight: Roxas and Xion, though Roxas emphasizes the "Knight" and Xion the "Magic". She in particular can come up with new spells on the fly.
- Magitech: It starts slow, with Mosh the Moogle enhancing the Normandy crew's weapons with his own materials. Later in the story, Disney castle, the Alliance, and the Migrant Fleet start combining Citadel technology with Gummi tech.
- Making a Splash: Xion's new unique Keyblade, Seashell's Resonance, is a water magic based one, with a design that's mostly crystal waves and a seashell for a keychain.
- Marionette Master: Xion discovers her own type of Nobody minions, the Puppets. They look like stylized marionettes and are able to restrict anything with their strings.
- Masquerade:
- Shepard and the crew initially try to keep the existence of magic and the Heartless a secret by omitting them from the reports to the Council, but it proves for naught when the Heartless attack the Citadel in plain view, with security cameras and several eyewitnesses. The Council is less than happy with Shepard omitting things from reports, but they do accept her explanation that they wouldn't believe her if she told them.
- Axel mentions that there is some kind of Alien Non-Interference Clause in their world regarding "not telling people from other worlds that you're from an other world because it messes with the world's laws", but they don't bother following that law on the Milky Way because interstellar travel is commonplace.
- Master of Unlocking: Roxas and Xion can unlock any lock with his keyblade, which proves extremely useful in Noveria and other secret bases.
- Memento MacGuffin: Upon dying, Shepard left behind the N7 insignia of her armor for Roxas to use as a keychain. The new keyblade is called N7 Effect.Roxas: A passing gift, from Shepard.
Kaidan: Should've known she would have left something behind for us. - Me's a Crowd: Ashley can create clones of herself.
- Mood Whiplash: At the end of Roxas and Tali's date on Rannoch, they suddenly wake up with a shared bad dream of the Collectors attacking the Normandy and Shepard dying.
- Mundane Utility: Axel using his fire powers to heat up a sandwich.
- My Greatest Failure: In canon, Joker sees Shepard's death as this, as he was the pilot.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling:
- By the time the Normandy crew defeats Saren, they can all sense when something significant happens to each other.
- Larxene senses that something's wrong when Sora and his friends encounter the memory of her Somebody in Castle Oblivion. Ditto for Xemnas.
- Mysterious Backer: There's a strange man in an Organization XIII uniform selling Sea Salt ice cream and seemingly watching over Roxas, supporting him. The next time he's seen after that initial appearance is on Rannoch of all places which would be impossible to reach due to all the Geths there. It's heavily implied to be the The Master of Masters although their goals for Roxas is unclear.
- Mythology Gag:
- When Roxas and Tali are exploring the Citadel for the first time, they come across that Sushi bar that Tali always wanted to go to. Fortunately, nobody crashes through the fish tank this time.
- Some people like Della and Stitch confuse Roxas for his Identical Stranger Ventus.
- Roxas' new clothes are a recreation of the outfit he first woke up in, a.k.a. his KHII outfit.
- Edna Mode asks Shepard to promote her business instead of paying for Roxas's new clothes. Cue the famous line.Shepard: I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite clothing store in the Citadel.
- Della Duck, naturally, is found on the Moon.
- While talking about Ventus, Della mentions Pete, and segues into a quick discussion of he and Goofy's sons and his fractured marriage with Peg.
- Della asks Liara if her species was genetically engineered by someone, because she just can't figure out how their ability to reproduce with any species and their technological leaps would have occurred within the given timeframe without outside interference.
- At one point Kaidan calls himself a "biotic god".
- Garrus makes his "reach and flexibility" joke.
- The fic in general is filled to the brim with references to the 358/2 manga, such as the Dusks doodling on Roxas' face or the entire scene with Xion, Pluto and Saix.
- "Classic Kingdom" makes its return from Kingdom Hearts III as a collection of mini-games for Omnitool devices. The reward for getting the high score on all games is a brand new Keyblade, as Roxas finds out.
- Kaidan wonders if the Vorcha mafia really exists, which is hilarious because in Mass Effect 3 he is the one who tells Shepard that it's real.
- The outfit Axel gets from Edna Mode is identical to his casual KH3 outfit.
- Also from KH3, Roxas figures out Keyblade Formchanges. They play out in narration in a manner that's near identical to standard KH3 gameplay.
- The Terraforming technology that is transfered from Barsoom is dubbed Remnant and Alec Ryder is working on it.
- When Wrex is preparing to return to Tuchanka, he and Garrus have a joking conversation about how Garrus thinks he's funny and how Wrex wormed his way into Garrus's heart. That's the same discussion they have if you take the two with you to the Salarian research facility in ME3.
- The moment Roxas brings out Oblivion, everyone instantly exclaims "TWO?!"
- Zexion's Paper-Thin Disguise is literally just his KHIII outfit.
- Edna Mode has the exact same security system that she has in The Incredibles 1.
- The Normandy crew tries to pass Stitch as a mutated dog, like in his home movie.
- Roxas discovers that Stitch can serve as a gramophone and demonstrates it to the others the exact same way Lilo does.
N-Z
- Named by the Adaptation: Riku's Replica takes the name Kirux.
- Narnia Time: Time passes differently in each world; the Mass Effect and most of the Kingdom Hearts worlds run at the same time, but there are also cases where the time passes faster in this or that world, with the most extreme example being Wonderland, which in one Mass Effect year ten passed in Wonderland.
- Never Found the Body: The only thing left of Shepard after the Normandy crashed was pieces of her armour. It turns out she got trapped in the Realm of Darkness.
- Nice Guy:
- Even as an emotionless Blank Slate, Roxas still helps people he has nothing to do with simply because they need help.
- Sora as usual being this. When his Nobody Roxas has doubt if he's himself if he's Sora's Nobody, Sora reassures he's himself and he won't force him to disappear for his existence.
- No-Respect Guy: Demyx is at the receiving end of jokes even when he's not around.Luxord: Consider me the least dangerous person you would face since you've left.
Xion: Doubt it.
Luxord: How so?
Xion: Demyx ain't all that dangerous. - Noodle Incident:
- Wrex frequently makes vague references to situations he's been in, since he's over 700 years old.
- Axel once saw Luxord bankrupt a whole casino overnight by winning all the games.
- Della knows Ventus from... somewhere.
- When Miranda asks Alice is she knows who Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) is, she clearly recognizes the name but blanks out and refuses to speak.
- The Nose Knows: Riku, Axel and Zexion all have the ability to "smell people" - or to be particular, magic registers as a scent to them. According to Axel at least. This enables them all to track people, the same way you smell smoke from a bonfire.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: For Roxas and Xion, Shepard's death and the destruction of the Normandy is the same as losing their home.
- Not So Above It All:
- Kaidan. He's as eager to get in the chaos as everyone else, even if he looks like a goody-two-shoes.
- Double so for Liara, who managed to get into situations like a sex orgy or a bar fight with zero regrets.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Namine is surprised that Elrena acted quite similar to how Namine does, and says it's like looking at a mirror.
- Ocular Gushers: Xion's reaction to emotional goodbyes. And yes, they're actual ocular gushers, they form puddles and all.Ashley: Physics just doesn't matter anymore. Or reality or... any semblance of normalcy.
- Odd Friendship: Admiral Hackett strikes a rapport with Scrooge McDuck of all people after Omnitool technology starts spreading in the Okuku Galaxy.
- Official Couple: Roxas from ends up in a relationship with Tali. Shepard and Axel are also heading that way, though Everyone Can See It but them.
- On a Scale from One to Ten: Admiral Hackett asks Shepard to rate how weird she thinks the whole adventure with her ending up on a fictional world and ending with Mars being breathable was to her. She gives it a 7.5.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: The Normandy crew just won't stop teasing Liara about the time she ended up in a night-long sex party during the wedding celebration at Helium.
- One Degree of Separation:
- To cut it short, Roxas has Sora's memories, who is friends with Donald, who has his sister Della, who knew Ventus, who looks identical to Roxas, and she gets to meet Roxas in person. Ditto for Stitch who also knew Ventus. Actually, EVERYONE knows Ventus in one way or the other.
- Later Roxas is challenged to a one-on-one duel by Sephiroth, who asks if Roxas knows Cloud. He doesn't but he knows that Sora does, and Sephiroth immediately picks up on Roxas being familiar with the name.
- One-Man Army: The term is namedropped sometimes in the fic in regards to the Nobodies, especially Lexaeus after he singlehandedly causes an earthquake on the Citadel.
- Only Sane Man: Tevos comes off as this compared to Sparatus and later Udina, who both have hair-trigger tempers.
- OOC Is Serious Business:
- This trope is part of the reason why Zexion goes through half his character development and starts questioning the Organization. He knows that Axel, Roxas and Xion wouldn't have defected just because they heard of the Replica program, so he starts pulling every thread he can find, including asking Saïx if this seems to be really in-character for Axel. While it gets him nowhere due to Xigbar and Xemnas keeping everyone Locked Out of the Loop, he does find out about Subject X from Saïx, which also strikes him as an Out-Of-Character moment.
- Goofy, Donald and Riku are very concerned to notice that Sora fights far more aggressively than usual. Sora himself isn't sure what the problem is, until they all figure out that it's Roxas influencing him.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: One of Aria's guards laughs at John Silver calling Aria a "maiden". Aria slams him into the wall.
- Outside-Context Problem:
- Roxas and his whole reality become one for the Mass Effect universe, because suddenly the Heartless attack everything, magic is real, and there are superhumans running around. After a point it simply becomes impossible to hide, and the Council has no choice but to accept it. Sovereign goes as far as to say that the Nobodies have ruined the Cycle, though he immediately takes it back.
- Yen Sid, Organization XIII and Cerberus worry that this trope goes both ways; they fear what will happen if the Reapers somehow make it across to the Kingdom Hearts worlds, because as they are, the worlds have absolutely no way to defend against them.
- Papa Wolf: Rael'Zorah's reaction to Roxas asking his permission to take out Tali on a date is to shut down, think of ALL the worst case scenarios he can currently process and go into If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her... mode. He eventually relents though.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Zexion's idea of a disguise consists of putting on a lab coat as opposed to the Organization coat, sweeping his hair a bit so his bangs don't completely cover his right eye, and call himself "Zo". The only reason it works is because Axel and the others don't have pictures of the other Organization members.
- Parental Abandonment:
- While not quite abandonment, Liara admits that she and her mother hadn't talked for decades, and that she realizes in hindsight that she barely knew her. Keep in mind that said decades were essentially Liara in her late teens / college years. She also never met her father due to the prejudice against pure-blooded Asari.
- Zexion views Ansem the Wise's disappearance as this - and that's not taking into account how his biological parents are dead.
- Jim Hawkins's father just walked out of their house one morning and never came back. It messed him and his mother up for life, to the point that Shepard notes she would have thought him an orphan raised on the streets if not for his file stating his mother is still around.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Lexaeus manages to single-handedly undo all the repairs that were done after the Battle of the Citadel as a side effect of his fight. The original damage was caused by a robot army and this guy did it again, on his own, by accident.
- Pet the Dog: Also doubling as a Mythology Gag, Saix lets Naminé and Xion keep Pluto as a pet, explaining to a surprised Axel that he remembers being fond of dogs.
- Power Misidentification: Most people in the Organization are under the impression that Marluxia's powers have something to do with flowers. Then he reveals that his power is actually to sense life and death and can tell when something's about to die - in this case, the star that goes supernova.
- Precision F-Strike: Roxas performs a very pointed one against DiZ when calling him out on his Fantastic Racism against Nobodies.
- Properly Paranoid: Captain Amelia fully expects the crew that was assigned to her for the expedition to search for Treasure Planet to betray her, and she chooses to trust the Normandy crew because she personally allowed them to come to the expedition. Her fears unfortunately come true.
- Pop-Cultured Badass: Ashley, Kaidan and Joker are pretty familiar with 20th and 21st century pop culture. Expect several Shout Outs from them.
- Psychic Link: The entire Normandy Crew shares one; if anything goes horribly wrong with one of them, everyone else feels it. The main examples are Shepard's death and Roxas and Xion passing out in Castle Oblivion.
- Pull the Thread: When Tali meets Liara's friend "Zo" aka Zexion, she recognizes him as one of the Organization members from one of her strange dreams. She decides to not expose him on the spot since she wants to wait on confirmation and she's not sure if Liara even realizes who Zo really is so she goes along with their conversation but making sure she goes along with Liara every time she meets Zo.
- Punny Name: The galaxy that the KH characters come from is called "Okuku", which means "kingdom" in Japanese. Doubles as Bilingual Bonus.
- Put on a Bus: Sora, Roxas and Xion are put to sleep in order for Namine to find a way to remove the connection that makes Xion siphon power off the other two. Namine estimates it'll take between a few months and a year.
- Ragtag Band of Misfits: Just like the game, Wrex lampshades this trope, as so does Nakmor Drack when he meets the Normandy crew. Nobody denies the accusation.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Sora's reaction when Roxas brings up to his friends his date with Tali on Rannoch, as because of their shared dreams he's all too aware of what they were doing there.
- Real After All:
- The first indication the Normandy crew gets that there's something even weirder than they thought with the place Roxas comes from is when they accidentally dive into his Heart and see images that allude to various known fairytales, like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It gets brought up again when Roxas brings up Merlin and they try to figure out if it's Merlin from the Arthurian myth. However, this trope really hits them in the head with vengeance when they accidentaly find themselves on Barsoom, the setting of John Carter of Mars, as Ashley has read the books and immediately recognizes it. The whole crew is disturbed by this and have no idea what to make of the whole "fictional worlds are actually real" thing, so they keep it under warps.
- Jack and Miranda are completely floored to see that Alice is real, mostly Jack because she met Alice in a dream and thought that's all that she was: a weird dream.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- The Systems Alliance officers that Shepard interacts the most with (Hackett and Anderson), as per canon. Anderson looks out to fulfill his duty and support Shepard in equal measures, while Hackett is repeatedly shown to be able to push his suspension of disbelief so he can benefit the Alliance the most.
- The Alliance as a whole is depicted as this (though not lacking in some rotten potatoes) after the Barsoom arc, as they're not hesitant to employ various species including Quarians in order to study the new technology.
- Captain Kirrahe and Councilor Valern are more than wiling to abandon the STG's typical cloak and dagger methods if it means fighting against the Reapers and provide full support to the other species of the galaxy and the Normandy crew. General Oraka also reveals that several of the higher-ups in Palaven are also sensing the incoming threat, including Primarch Fedorian and General Victus.
- Related in the Adaptation: Captain Kirrahe and Councilor Valern were not in any relation in the canon but here they are brothers.
- Relationship Upgrade: Namine gives Riku a Big Damn Kiss. They definitely weren't in a relationship in canon.
- Resign in Protest: Roxas at the start of the fic is still loyal to Organization XIII, but sticks around in the Mass Effect world out of curiosity. When he briefly returns to their base, he overhears Xemnas and Xigbar discuss the Organization's true plans, and how he, Namine and Xion were just pawns, he records the conversation and goes straight to Xion, Axel, and Namine, and the four defect on the spot.
- Running Gag:
- Every time Roxas runs into Kasumi, she tries to pickpocket his wallet (Munny pouch) only for it to vanish back to him without her noticing.
- The Normandy Crew always remark on how the heck does the Sea Salt trio even store that ice-cream?
- Every time Vexen's computers fail to do something, someone asks him if he tried turning it on and off. Vexen's replies get increasingly outraged (because yes, he has tried).
- Say My Name: The reunion in Castle Oblivion is full of this trope.Riku(?): SORA!
Mickey(?): DONALD! GOOFY!
Sora: RIKU!
Donald and Goofy: YOUR MAJESTY!
Roxas: Did those two come out from the basement levels?
Axel: I…
Xion: ROXAS!
Roxas: XION! I'm coming!
Riku: SORA.
Mickey: DONALD! GOOFY! You're here too!
Vexen: SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP! - Secret-Keeper:
- With the exception of Della, none of the people who knew Ventus see it fit to fill in Roxas on his existence. In fact, Axel has a private conversation with Mickey about Ventus, but absolutely no-one has spoken about him in front of Roxas except to note their identical appearance. Eventually Roxas does pick up that he looks identical to some guy named Ventus but he knows nothing about him.
- Tali figures out that Liara's friend "Zo" is actually Zexion within minutes of meeting him, but she decides to keep it a secret from everyone because she hasn't confirmed her suspicions, he hasn't tried anything yet and Liara seems to like him.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: It's implied on multiple occasions that Edna Mode knows about the other worlds, as she makes vague references to having seen stuff in her long life (so vague that they don't even qualify as Noodle Incidents) and notes that Axel, Roxas and Xion are "from the same place". The narration always makes sure to point out some of her stranger comments.
- Seen It All:
- The Normandy crew swears up and down that nothing can surprise them anymore. They're always wrong.
- Wrex has done just about everything in his life: he's been to low-gravity planets, several weddings, and a whole lot of stuff he never mentioned. He is 700 years old after all.
- Serial Escalation: After defeating Saren as per the canon Mass Effect climax, he turns into a Heartless. A few days later, Lexaeus shows up. And a few days after that, Sephiroth shows up. The crew lampshades how each of those opponents is far more powerful than the previous.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Roxas plays Classic Kingdom games on his omnitool. But in canon that's a series of games Scrooge came up with during KHIII, while this fic takes place during 358/2 Days, which is almost two years prior.
- The Geth Rebellion is called "Morning War" by Roxas characters even though only the Geth themselves know that term; and Roxas hasn't met any Geth able to talk at this point.
- Legion in his only appearance has the hole blown through his chest and the partial N7 armor patch-up, matching his appearance in Mass Effect 2. However, in-canon, that damage happened to them because they went looking for Shepard's body, and the N7 armor belonged to Shepard before her death. In this fic, Legion appears well before Shepard dies, so they have no reason to sport the hole in their chest, much less have that particular fix for it.
- While it's understandable that people confuse Roxas for Ventus, given they're Identical Strangers, the memory versions of the Dandelions also confuse them, even though Ven canonically was significantly younger than Roxas during those events. Why do they confuse a 15-year-old for a 10-year-old? And yes, they do see Roxas as Roxas, they comment on the coat.
- Shipper on Deck: Roxas and Tali have quite a few people rooting for them. Edna Mode, Jane, Axel, Ashley, Raan Garrus, and the Mysterious Backer... The only one who isn't really onboard is obviously Tali's father.
- Shout-Out: So, so, so many. The Normandy crew throws shout outs every chance they get.
- Garrus mentions Gandalf when they introduced to the Organization XII Moogle as Roxas explains what they do, in which he states the human films are amazing.
- Ashley compares the entire situation with the Rachni in Noveria with the movie Alien and asks the scientists how in the world did they not make the connection.
- Wrex gets from the on-board Moogle the Gravity Hammer. He really likes that hammer.
- One of the shops on the Citadel is ran by Edna Mode.
- Della is seen playing a Zelda game, if her comments about "trying to get a Heart Piece but getting killed by chicken" are anything to go by.
- Earlier on she and Joker were playing a Mortal Kombat game.
- As the Normandy approaches Crescentia Spaceport, Joker literally says "That's not a moon... That's a space station!". Later, he specifically compares it to the Death Star.
- Joker says that dog fighting the Geth is like someone mixed Galaga and Space Invaders.
- Kaidan says if they were going to Hogwarts when the group sees the purple train that leads them to Yen Sid's tower in Twilight Town.
- For some reason, Wonderland ends up influenced by its American McGee's Alice adaptation.
- One omake has the Normandy crew playing Among Us.
- Nakmor Drack has a pretty interesting choice of insult.Drack: You can take your boney ass outta here before I make your ugly face worse. I mean geez you look like Jeff Goldblum.
Drunk thug: ...That last one didn't sound like an insult.
Drack: From the Fly.
Drunk thug: FUCK YOU!
Ash: He knows about the Fly? How does a Krogan know about the Fly? - Shepard calls Lexaeus an earth bender.
- Simple Solution Won't Work:
- When Castle Oblivion's computers stop working, everyone questions Vexen if he's tried unplugging them. Vexen and Larxene retort that these computers do not have pluggers, routers, or anything else that you can actually unplug. Also, he did try it when he could.
- Namine says that she could deal with Riku's darkness for him, but that would require erasing all his memories related to it, which would be very counter-productive.
- Sleepyhead: According to Xion, Axel will grab any opportunity to take a nap.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Because the events of Chain of Memories got interrupted so early on, none of the Organization members have died.
- Both Ashley and Kaidan survive the Virmire mission since they had more manpower with the Sea-Salt Trio resulting in Shepard not being forced to sacrifice one of them.
- Shepard, instead of dying when the Normandy crashed, gets trapped in the Realm of Darkness.
- Spotting the Thread:
- As they explore Rannoch, Roxas and Tali are very weirded when they get to see how clean and intact the cities are, implying something is actively tending to them.
- When Ephemer mentions Master Ava, Roxas and Xion instantly recognize the name from the book on keyblades that they found on Treasure Planet.
- Axel realizes that Cerberus and the Organization work together due to Marluxia showing familiarity towards Miranda. However he realizes just as quickly that it's far from an equal partnership.
- The Stations of the Canon: Despite Roxas's presence, the events of the first Mass Effect game go more or less exactly as in canon, aside from the detour to Etherium and later Barsoom. This includes Shepard dying from what's supposedly a surprise Geth attack.
- Stating the Simple Solution:
- When Septimus Oraka is getting drunk over his failing relationship with Sha'ira, Roxas asks him why he doesn't simply talk to her and take her out for ice-cream. It works splendidly, and both of them are extremely grateful to Roxas afterwards.
- While most of the Normandy crew is stranded on Etherium, one of the locals asks Kaidan why don't the Nobodies just teleport to the Citadel to let the rest of the crew know where they are. Much later on, Kaidan relays the conversation to Shepard, who literally just went through a whole lot of bullshit and...Shepard: This conversation never happened.
- At one point Marluxia and Larxene discuss their old plans to bring Sora under the control of the Organization and how they fell through because they can't manipulate his memories without Namine - then they realize they can simply kidnap Kairi and use her to blackmail him.
- Storming the Castle: Sora and his friends, along with the Nobody trio and Namine, decide to properly storm Castle Oblivion to find out how to stop Xion from draining Roxas' power away.
- Stripperiffic: The typical fashion sense among the youth of Helium in hopes of finding a boyfried/girlfriend that way.
- The Talk: Nobody on the Normandy gave it to Roxas and Xion because they deemed them "too young", so they did the research themselves. They agree to never speak of it to anyone.
- Team Member in the Adaptation:
- One of Garrus' teammates in Omega is Vetra Nyx from Mass Effect: Andromeda, who was never associated with him in canon; also doubles as Spared by the Adaptation, as she survives the Last Stand on Omega, unlike the fate of Garrus' canon teammates. In the aftermath, she ends up being recruited to Shepard's team to help fight the Collectors.
- Lexi T'Perro is not only working with Mordin when he is recruited, but she also ends up joining him on the Normandy SR-2, neither of which she was associated with in canon.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
- Admiral Hackett is less than happy to see Alec Ryder among the team studying Barsoom technology. He doesn't hate the man, but Ryder was dishonorably discharged from the army for his research in Artificial Intelligence, which is highly illegal. Ryder says that he was recruited due to the highly unusual circumstances, and promises not to try anything extreme.
- Cerberus and Organization XII are not too happy working with each other; several Organization members bring up Cerberus's status as a place filled with Mad Scientists that promote extreme ideologies, while Cerberus members question being involved with a group that they know next to nothing about. Both Xemnas and the Illusive Man shut down all protests, pointing out the common threat of the Darkness-enhanced Reapers.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Roxas delivers a strong-worded one to DiZ after he reiterates the stuff he said in early Kingdom Hearts II, even comparing him to the Council.
- Della Duck delivers an epic one to the Council, calling them out on everything from their bad history with First Contacts to their treatment of Shepard to how they try to order around people who owe them absolutely nothing and try to force their rules on situations where rules are not applicable, and how they're hindering Shepard's efforts.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Marluxia's method of dealing with the Normandy crew is to lure them and their ship near a star that's about to go supernova and then turn into a black hole. It doesn't actually kill them, but several chapters later they still can't believe that they got away in time.
- Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: The Dandelions have a really hard time accepting that Roxas is not Ventus because the two of them are Identical Strangers. Not helped by the fact Roxas does have unconscious access to Ventus' memories.
- Token Evil Teammate: The crew starts treating Jack as this after she drives Xion to tears but tearing her down after Xion just dropped by to say hello, with Shepard threatening to remove her access from the files and Axel outright burning her shoulder. Jack on her part is furious that everyone is protecting a dumb little girl and that she should be tougher than that.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- All of the Normandy members, as they get upgraded equipment and later get magic abilities on their own by Yen Sid's blessings. Wrex and Axel discuss this trope, as Wrex points out that it's not normal for anyone his age to get stronger (he IS pretty old).
- Xion gets her own unique keyblade, Sheashell's Resonance. In canon she only has the Kingdom Key.
- Roxas figures out Shotlocks and Formachanges, which he never did in canon, gets a few original keychains, and eventually unlocks his signature dual-wielding. Sora and Xion are quick to figure out similar techniques.
- Namine goes from a non-action character to a mage on her own right, with a staff.
- Toon Physics: Hilariously, the Sea-Salt trio inserts this in the Mass Effect universe, with the Ocular Gushers, Snot Bubbles and one instance of a Big Ball of Violence.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Sea-Salt ice cream for Roxas. He quickly gets the rest of the Normandy crew addicted, and Sora too.
- Tragic Keepsake:
- Peter Pan and the Lost Boys have held on to the broken pieces of the wooden Keyblade that Terra made Ventus. While neither of them is actually dead, they are arguable in far worse situations than that. Somewhat downplayed though because Peter Pan and his friends are completely unaware of what happened to Ventus and Terra.
- After Shepard dies, Roxas keeps the N7 insignia from her armour as a keychain.
- Trapped in Another World:
- The premise of this fic is a double subversion of this trope, as Roxas can return to his own world at any given time but instead chooses to stay out of curiosity after he rescues Tali.
- Played straight with Shepard after the Normandy crashed, as she gets trapped in the Realm of Darkness.
- Unconventional Electives 101: A freelance mercenary during Archangel's recruitment mission brags he has an MIT degree in piracy. The merc doingthe sign ups is stunned to see it's legitimate.
- Unreliable Narrator: Ashley ponders on this trope when she hears John Carter talk about his late wife and compares it to how the books she read described her. She realizes that the latter had a real bias against her presenting her more as an object while the former is obviously describing a real person who was very important to him.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
- After Saren is defeated, the Normandy crew takes a shore leave in Twilight Town. None of the residents are bothered by the aliens.
- Riku blatantly uses the Darkness when fighting alongside the Dandelions but none of them point this out. Though that may have to do with Riku mentioning making "bad life choices" earlier.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Everyone is completely baffled by Marluxia and Larxene's Somebodies being perfectly decent people.Axel: What the hell happened to her to make her such a bitch?
- Verbal Tic: Mosh the Moogle: Kupo! Which is what every Moogle says at the end of their statement.
- Virtual Soundtrack: The fic many times will prompt readers to listen to a specific song when reading certain scenes. For example, the fight against Lexaeus prompts the readers to listen to the 13th Struggle while reading the scene. There are also prompts for when to stop listening to something.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: After being launched through Ilos to the Citadel inside the Mako, Tali's reaction is to vomit. Roxas helps her through it by getting her faceplate off just in time, patting her back to make sure she doesn't choke and giving her a potion right after.
- Wedding Smashers: The Normandy crew and John Carter crash in the wedding of Sab Than and Dejah because they're certain it's a trap - and they're right too. Kaidan even says that he always wanted to do that.
- Wham Shot:
- Chapter 39 ends with Roxas dreaming of Shepard's death.
- Chapter 41 ends with The Reveal that Shepard is alive, but trapped in the Realm of Darkness and completely amnesiac.
- Chapter 44 ends with Castle Oblivion unlocking Ventus's memories of Daybreak Town.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: The wedding celebrations in Helium involved a LOT of alcohol. Which is how Shepard and Axel find themselves sleeping together half-undressed (nothing happened), or Roxas finds himself being used as a pillow by both Xion and Tali...
- Workaholic:
- Liara's method of coping with Shepard's death is to throw herself at work, to the point she barely eats or sleeps for a week. It takes an intervention from Zo to make her start taking care of herself again, and he's a self-admitted workaholic himself.
- Likewise, Tali, in her obsession to do something, works herself to such a point that she can't even stand, and it takes a whole lot of effort and threats of an intervention to get her to rest. One of the only ways to get her to almost stop is mentioning Roxas.
- You Didn't Ask: Roxas' typical response every time he busts out a piece of information or ability that the others didn't know he had. Axel even lampshades it regarding his ability to fly thanks to Tinkerbell.Axel: Roxas... you can't use that excuse forever.
- You Remind Me of X: Sephiroth tells Roxas that he reminds him of a "him", in that they both prefer the light but have ties to darkness.