Ink City

Ink City is a cartoon-themed Dreamwidth roleplay (originally on LiveJournal, moved as of January 17, 2012), founded on August 17th, 2010 by a Californian art student. Its claim to fame is that is specifically designed for animated, drawn, and rendered characters (no live-action characters are accepted) and has quite a large focus on existential and meta themes.

The premise is initially similar to that of other Mega Crossover games; Characters from various canons suddenly find themselves in the strange and bizarre "Ink City" after crawling out of a large ink well in the center of town, and are forced to co-exist with everyone else who also happened to be brought here... peacefully or otherwise. A unique element of the City itself however is that it's made of up buildings from each of the character's worlds. When a character enters the City, they bring with them a building relating to them from the place they come from, such as their house or place of work.

The creation, and really the extensiveness, of this page is due to that many of the players are highly aware of the tropes they use, enjoy collecting them, and like to treat the entire game as its own canon Just for Fun.

Has a Recap page.

Tropes used in Ink City include:
  • Aborted Declaration of Love: Cave Johnson does this towards Caroline, after he gets her a little drunk.
  • Actor Allusion: When Discord arrives, Skips immediately starts calling him Q.
  • Addressing The Mun: Petitus does this all the time.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: GLaDOS.
  • All the Myriad Ways: Caroline justifies her decision to aid Starscream with a variation on this. Sure, betraying Optimus Prime to him will surely cause the deaths of millions of innocents upon his return home... but that's not her universe, so what does that matter to her?
  • Alternate Continuity: The Transformers cast has representatives from Gen 1, the G1 Dreamwave comics, Animated, Prime, and Shattered Glass. Including four Starscreams.
  • Alternate Timeline: What occurs in the crack community is completely non-canon from the rest of the game, but has somewhat its own separate (and hilarious) continuity, and is often referred to as "Labocanon". This crack canon does have less actual continuity to it to, for obvious reasons.
    • Interestingly, unlike most games, the crack-community's "canon" is actually has prominent and evolving characterization, albeit one that is aware of the goings-on in the main game. Chances are, if one of the Ink City characters shows up in Dear Mun, the version you're speaking to is "Labocanon" (due to the meta nature). Of course, for some characters (Deadpool and Ren come to mind) the difference is almost completely nonexistent.
  • American Accents: Priscilla has a southwestern accent, being as she's from the Mojave Desert (200+ years into a post-nuclear-apocolyptic future not withstanding).
  • And I Must Scream: Mordecai, briefly while being trapped in a "black hole" beneath the Ink Well.
    • Rigby when he was under mind control.
    • Most of what happens to Thrasher throughout the entirety of the me1TD0WN Event.
    • Happens to the Doctor after going into the forest to find the TARDIS. He seems surprisingly okay with it.
    • Trevor tried to inflict this fate on Yakko and Rigby. Didn't work out the way he planned it.
  • Another Dimension: While the city exists as something of a cross between a Phantom Zone and an Inn Between the Worlds with a one way door, the characters themselves are from different and unique dimensions. Obviously.
  • Arc Number: The different overarching plot segments that occur in the game are referred to as "seasons". "Season 1" ended with the first confrontation with Audrey II, and "Season 2" concluded with game-wide "World Split" Event. The game is currently in "Season 3".
  • Arc Words: Ostensibly, "Fly away, birdie... fly away home." for the "Season 1" arc.
  • Ascended Meme: "Labocabana", the title of Yakko's parody of "Copacabana", later became the name of the game's crack community.
  • Author Avatar: Avatars of the players themselves are starting to appear in the game in some Fourth Wall-shattering shenanigans.
    • The Mayor's Consort may be something of a subversion, as she's been described as "numerous aspects of [her player's] personality and mental process exaggerated and personified into something of symbolic representation of [her] creativity"
  • Ax Crazy: Heloise, full stop.
    • Also, Ren.
  • Baleful Polymorph: Inverted by both Wheatley and Doctor Norrington. Prior to entering the City, the former became an android while the latter obtained the ability to enter a human form.
  • Beat Still My Heart: At the end of Log #3, Mordecai's fate.
  • Becoming the Costume: Discord crashes the City's Halloween Party by transforming everyone into their costumes.
  • Berserk Button: Nearly every character has one. An especially extreme has been Lucius at the mention of Beezy's mother.
    • Do not break the Fourth Wall around Deadpool.
  • Better as Friends: How Heloise feels about Dr. Chipotle Jr., despite the fact he's completely infatuated with her.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Ryo Bakura is nice enough. Yami no Bakura, on the other hand...
    • Don's usually a Nice Guy willing to help others and get sugar, but mess with his brother and he's perfectly willing to leave you floating in a pool of paralytic fluid.
    • When Swindle unleashes the Cosmic Rust upon Ink City as part of an ill-concieved plan to blackmail the sweet-natured Skyfire into trading his cannons for the cure, Skyfire makes it very clear he doesn't barter with his friends' lives.
  • Big Brother Instinct: In the absence of the other Warner sibs, Yakko has taken Rigby on as a psuedo-sibling.
    • Don and Wakko show cases of Little Brother Instinct upon discovering just how Trevor's been treating their big bros.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Audrey II, post Inky Mayor encounter.
    • Heloise gets in on it, too, when she saves Mordecai and Rigby from Johnny C.
    • Yakko, when Trevor kidnaps Rigby.
      • And that was followed shortly by Wakko and Don when Trevor nabbed both Yakko and Rigby.
    • Yakko, Rigby, and Crmsn attempt to rescue Trevor after it's been revealed what Berri did to him. Unlike the other mentions here, this one goes very, very badly.
    • After Starscream manages to get his hands on Three, the just-arrived Optimus Prime goes after him, with several of the other stitchpunks tagging along for the ride.
  • Brainwashing for the Greater Good: Trevor believes this is an acceptable method to bring about his vision of New Bregna. Other residents tend to disagree on the 'greater good' aspect.
  • Break the Cutie: While not fitting into the traditional 'cutie' personality, Rigby does not deserve half of the things that happen to him once entering the city.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Trevor gets catapulted into the OOC community by Yakko during this log.
  • Break the Haughty: Heloise in Log #4. Broken isn't even the half of it, but what happens to her in Event #1 is arguably even worse.
  • Brick Joke: The ability of one player's avatar to become a Gomamon, a fact established during a No Fourth Wall meme several weeks prior, comes in handy when swimming through the fountain is necessary to recover another avatar.
    • Somewhat easily missed if you're not familiar with his canon; what Norrington receives from The Mayor's Consort. "Here are your eyes back, Doctor~"
  • Broken Bird: A few characters, some more than others.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: The Riddler (P.I. Version). Upon first arriving in the city, he gains no points towards people believing him sane by rambling maniacally under his breath (in actuality, he was just trying to deduce how he'd gotten there).
  • Captain Oblivious: Cave Johnson.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Heloise. Literally, she has business cards.
  • Cassandra Truth: Twilight tried to warn everyone about Discord, but most of the responders to her broadcast were more concerned with her being a talking purple unicorn. A few did take her seriously, but none of them were in any position to react when he made his move.
  • Cats Are Mean: Mordecai Heller, naturally.
  • Caught on Tape: The communicators have Record and Playback features.
  • Character Development: Living in the City tends to change people. Some more than others.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Mr. Puppethead.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Ion Spark. She's dead-set on trying to help everyone in the City, even if they don't want her to. Unless of course, they're a villain.
    • Ichigo has shades of this. Taking requests from fans and family was such an intregal part of life back in the Great Cosmos that helping others out has become an emotional crutch of sorts simply because it's familiar.
    • This could easily apply to Priscilla too.
  • Combat Tentacles: Audrey II. They're vines, actually, but same thing.
    • Norrington attempts attacking The Mayor with these. It doesn't work, because Elder God or not, you can't exactly fight ink.
  • Continuity Nod: It's not unusual for events in the City to contain nods to events from a given character's original Canon.
  • Crap Saccharine World: At first blush, things are pretty good-you're in a mostly colorful world with all sorts of people from different worlds and you don't die permanently. On the other hand, you're in a city you cannot escape with people from other worlds and you can't die permanently.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Rigby, as surprising as that is.
  • Cruel Mercy: Trevor refuses to take revenge on Berri for what she did to him. He deliberately waits to inform her of this until after she's made a city-wide confession, in order to watch her suffer. The only reason she confessed in the first place was to keep him from punishing the wrong Mew, so the timing was critical.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Him versus Doctor Norrington.
  • Cute and Psycho: Berri, having been completely broken back home, has become this as a result. What she did to Trevor just proves it.
  • Cycle of Revenge: Thanks to the Ink Well allowing residents to respawn, death isn't the end—but it sure does tick people off!
  • Damned By Faint Praise: Some of the things the voice in Hely's head could be interpreted this way, such as "You've made this City what it is!"
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: Yakko, Audrey II, and a few others.
  • Darker and Edgier: The Benson/Mordecai/Heloise Log. You may have trouble watching Regular Show again afterward...
  • Deadpan Snarker: A good majority of the characters are like this.
  • Deal with the Devil: Caroline trades five ounces of energon for blueprints for the handheld portal gun. This led to her having to make a second deal with a different devil, as Starscream demands more information and loyalty in exchange for her breach of trust.
  • Death Is Cheap: Whenever any character dies, no matter how horrible their death is, they simply respawn sometime later at the Ink Well where they first arrived.
  • Defrosting Ice King: Mr. House is definitely starting to become this, with Priscilla as his heat source. Especially after she's able to temporarily enter his virtual reality mainframe, and becomes not only the first human being he's had physical contact with in over 200 years, but actually hugs him!
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: Trevor, meeting an enraged Wakko for the first time, attempts to convince him that his own brother should be paralyzed and tortured for his own good. Needless to say, Wakko doesn't buy it.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Someone fed you to a man-eating plant? Kidnap their best friend and perform a lobotomy on them - without any form of anesthesia - and insert a chip into their brain that puts them under mind control and tell them to kill said person who fed you to the plant.
    • Granted, being eaten alive is pretty horrible, and she was especially vengeful after losing her Morality Chain, but it was still rather extreme.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: As mentioned above, LaboCanon is seperate from the main game, to the point that certain characters have become vastly different in Labo compared to Ink City.
  • Does Not Understand Pop Culture References: Ichigo tends to take things at face value, and doesn't always realize when someone's joking.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Benson and Mordecai in Event #1.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: This exchange (after Mordecai is Mistaken for Gay) on the OOC community which is oddly In-Character.
  • Don't Go in The Woods: Ever. And if you must, at least Stay on the Path.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Skips, after he discovers he isn't immortal anymore.
    • Phoenix is found suffering from a hangover. The tag description calls him a binge drinker.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Lucius consistently appeared in the crack community memes weeks before being formally introduced into the main game. Although for now dropped from the main com, he continues his presence in Labocabana.
  • Elegant Gothic Lolita: A distinctive feature of The Mayor's Consort. Her account name even lampshades this.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Due to a humorous misunderstanding, Heloise calls Mordecai "Ladybird", simply because it pisses him off.
  • Engineered Public Confession: Rigby managed to record one of Trevor's many attempts to capture and control Yakko and him, and replays it for the entire City to try and shatter Trevor's public image.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Ichigo is quick to tell others that she's a Royal Cousin, emphasizing the royalty aspect. There's also Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana-Fana-Bo-Besca the Third, aka 'Dot'.
  • Cute Kitten: Cupid turned Mordecai into a kitten. And promptly forgot about it, much to Mordecai's dismay.
  • Evil Genius: The City tends to attract a lot of these, many of them also Mad Scientists.
  • The Evils of Free Will: Trevor wishes to eliminate this and transform Ink City into New Bregna. All for their own good, of course.
  • Evil Versus Evil: GLaDOS and Starscream. To make matters worse, part of the reason they're squaring off is because both are interested in exploiting the stitch-punks.
    • Trevor and GLaDOS are also set to butt heads in the near future.
  • Expy: The Inky Mayor is very often compared to The Warden. His human form just adds to this.
  • Eyeless Face: The Mayor's Consort.
  • False Friend: Caroline proposes to Starscream that she can become one to Optimus Prime and help the Decepticon find a way to kill him.
  • Fantastic Racism: Twilight seems to have a lot of vitriol towards the various Transformers in the city, despite what Hub's commercials may suggest about pony/robot togetherness. Being from a world where The Power of Friendship conquers every problem might be part of the issue, given the Transformers' Forever War...
    • Evil the Cat seems to hold all humans in low regards, thinking all of them to be dumb, naive, and easily manipulativeable.
  • First Boy Wins: Ultimately, Jimmy was the only one for Heloise.
  • Fish Out of Temporal Water: Not all residents come from worlds with lots of technology. Young Tigress, for instance, has no clue what things like 'videos' and 'robots' are, for obvious reasons.
  • Flat What: Yakko's reaction to Jimmy and Heloise's friendship.
    • Also, Yami no Bakura's reaction to seeing Batty.
  • Foe Yay: Heloise and Lucius, in the crack community especially.
  • For Science! and Evulz: Heloise's motivation for doing what she does.
    • GLaDOS is also motivated by this, and Caroline as well... to the point that Caroline is willing to make several deals with shady characters like Starscream, Trevor, and GLaDOS herself for the sake of furthering her research.
    • What Megatron did to Caroline was pretty much to prove to Ink City how evil he is.
  • Four Is Death: Openly, blatantly referenced by Berri when her fourth post to the community involves displaying Trevor in a paralyzed but still-living And I Must Scream state.
  • Fourth Wall: Located in the forest; touching it leads to BAD THINGS.
    • Caroline is poised to go through this as well, once she learns the Awful Truth.
  • Gentle Giant: Several among the Transformers Cast. SG Megatron, SG Starscream, Skyfire, and TFP Optimus Prime come to mind
  • A God Am I: Trevor invokes this a lot.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Thrasher throughout the me1TD0WN event.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Several of the characters possess scars of some kind, especially in the head/face region.
  • The Government: Who is The Inky Mayor? How does the city actually run?
  • Gratuitous Spanish: Doctor Chipotle Junior
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Veser Hatch is a half-Selkie.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Trevor frequently engages in these just in everyday conversation.
  • Has Two Daddies: Legato. Starscream and Soundwave have also formed an odd family unit with Jetstorm.
  • Hearing Voices: Ren starts hearing a red-tinted, purple-tinted for a while, voice during the World Split that keeps abusing the fourth wall; it hangs around afterward.
    • Heloise also starts hearing voices after the World Split is fixed; its comments don't bode well for her future...
  • The Heartless: The Inky Mayor has the power to summon hoards of monstrous black Ink creatures, actually somewhat similar in appearance to the original Heartless.
  • Heroic BSOD: Jimmy, of all people, after he finds out that Heloise killed Mordecai.
    • Bass has somewhat of a minor one after tagging the wall through Berri. It would have been more serious if he hadn't forcibly pushed it aside for other priorities, but a full-blown one is certainly on the horizon.
  • Hidden Elf Village: One tries to run the Cathedral like this, ordering the other stitchpunks to stay inside and never use their communicators. It doesn't work.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Trevor got a taste of his own medicine—or rather, his own paralytic fluid.
    • Prior to this, Trevor managed to hurt Rigby by showing Phoenix a video of Rigby's revenge killing and damaging his friendship with the lawyer. Rigby eventually gets his revenge by broadcasting footage of what led up to Trevor's hoisting above.
    • Trevor is a magnet for these; Berri takes the first example and throws in a dash of Mad Science by pumping him full of paralytic and opening up his chest.
  • Hopeless Suitor: Doctor Chipotle Junior to Heloise, though they have quite a bit of Ship Tease.
  • Hot Consort: Turns out The Mayor has one, though she's not exactly "hot" in the most... traditional sense.
  • Humanoid Abomination: The Mayor's Consort is essentially a mix between an attractive young lady and an Ink Monster.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: Berri and Ava feel this way.
  • I Am Not Weasel: Rigby is constantly confused for a rodent. Ren has the same basic problem.
  • I Choose to Stay: Not all of the residents are upset by being brought to the city, having left behind even more Crapsack Worlds or simply becoming enamored with what it has to offer.
  • If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten: Megatron demanded that Swindle prove his loyalty by finding a way to destroy the Ink Well and its regeneration abilities. Swindle's been trying to Take a Third Option and weasel out of it without making himself a target in the process.
  • Ignored Expert: Mordecai to Benson in Log #3
  • Implausible Deniability: Trevor attempting to convince Optimus Prime that despite all evidence to the contrary, he didn't kidnap Aisling.
  • Innocent Innuendo: Innuendo tends to fly right over Ichigo's head, while Dot is savvy enough to recognize, lampshade and encourage it. This backfired on the Warner sister when Ichi's not understanding what Oscar Mayor could be compensating for led down a very awkward road.
  • Insane Equals Violent: Deliberately invoked by Berri's player; her unstable nature has been likened to Bipolar, with her Cute but Psycho moments distinctly being referred to as "manic" states. In contrast, her mellower, 'depressive' states being the cue to contemplate her navel.
    • Trevor also likes to use this to 'justify' his behavior by claiming those who stand against him are insane, violent creatures.
  • Intellectual Animal: The city has quite a few, although not all of them are standard Earth animals; the Pokémon are a good example.
  • In Which a Trope Is Described: The title for a few logs.
  • I Surrender, Suckers: Bass pulls this on the Mayor at one point, to get close enough to attack him. This intentionally mirrors a little-seen moment in the manga where he pulls the same stunt, and factors into the resolution of the Discord Halloween incident.
  • It Got Worse: The first log with Benson, Mordecai, and Heloise slowly gets more and more dark and disturbing.
    • Invoked by the name of the post where the feral Yakko makes it back to the City.
  • Jake, You Are My Uncle: Priscilla (a human Courier), through a series of alternate universes, is actually technically the niece of Rattlesnake Jake. It's a bit of a Mind Screw for the both of them when they discover this, to say the least.
  • Just Between You and Me: After Rigby apologizes to the City at large for what he did to Trevor, Trevor contacts him to rub salt in the wound... then alludes to possibly cloning Yakko, as well as having his own revenge plans in the works...
  • Kick the Dog: Just in case it wasn't fully established that Cave Johnson is oblivious to everything that isn't him, one of the first things he does in the city is kick Six out of the way.
    • Megatron's first act upon arrival is to kick Starscream around. Yet he deals even worse damage to Caroline, despite (or because?) her professed loyalty to the Decepticons.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Averted. Characters remember everything about their respective canons, and their deaths, if they die.
    • Somewhat played straight after Heloise respawns after Rigby pushes her off a boat into the ocean to get eaten by Sea-Ink Monsters. She can't remember Jimmy's face, name, and most of the memories she had with him. Later it's revealed that it was The Mayor's Consort that took away those memories in an attempt to keep Heloise from relying too heavily on a Morality Chain. She after which returns them.
  • Late to the Party: Oswald shows up late to the Halloween Party because he was having trouble finishing his costume on time... and as a result, was one of the only residents who didn't get hit by Discord's costume-changing spell. References have already been made towards his luck.
  • Lethal Chef: Heloise, in an amusing contrast to Supreme Chef Doctor Chipotle Junior.
    • Legato, not that it's come up much (thank goodness for small miracles).
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: From the crack community, Heloise and Lucius having thought they slept together. Turns out nothing actually happened, much to their relief.
    • In the main game, Lynne to Fluttershy after realizing she almost told her that the reason Missile can talk is 'cause he sorta died.
  • Literal Genie: Calypso, in fitting with the original canon. So far he's only granted one wish, but it resulted in Ren's death. And he seems to just be doing it for fun.
  • Living Shadow: Bass does this a lot. It's taken Up to Eleven when he is hit with the Becoming the Costume spell during the Halloween event while in "Shadow mode" and becomes Crmsn's own personal, albeit very reluctant, Living Shadow.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: The Mayor would really prefer keeping the residents in the dark about... Well, take your pick of secrets, really. One good way to set him off is to keep poking at the fourth wall, literally or metaphorically.
  • Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Bass was on this road back home, which was interrupted when he decided to put himself on a Long Bus Trip. Castmates arriving in the city have put this right back on track.
    • In fact, this trope in general could be said of a few people around.
  • Mad Artist: Twice. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Six. Six also doubles as Mad Oracle, able to do things like draw GLaDOS doing to Vlad and his computer AI what she is best known for.
  • Man Hug: Don sure loves his sugar.
  • Masquerade: The Mayor is working desperately to uphold this in regards to Ink City's many secrets.
    • Zig-zagged by the P4 cast: Yosuke has been very open about his Persona and powers to certain people, but cagier around others. Souji, meanwhile, prefers to keep such things to himself, and is annoyed whenever confronted with evidence his teammates haven't been as careful.
  • Mean Character, Nice Actor: The muns playing the villains and evil characters are some of the nicest and most sociable people when they're not in character.
  • Mega Crossover: Notable for having a lot of Western Animated or obscure canons. Full List Here!
  • Master of Delusion: A number of times.
  • Medium Awareness: Yakko, Wakko and Dot still have this, as do Deadpool and Petitius.
  • Meta Guy: The City tends to draw in plenty of both types, along with a few Fourth Wall Observers.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Another humorous misunderstanding has Heloise take Mordecai's Embarrassing Nickname to the next level.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Caroline was pretty dedicated to helping the Decepticons until Megatron showed up. How he treated her resulted in her rethinking which side of the Cybertorian war she's on.
  • Mood Swinger: The entire game switches from comedy and drama on a dime. For example, Logs #1 and #2 are rather light-hearted. Log #3 on the other hand...
    • In-universe, there's Johnny C. who goes from being friendly with Mordecai and Rigby to yelling at them all while planning on murdering them.
  • Mood Whiplash: See above. It's a bit to be expected, when you're mixing characters like Heloise, Mordecai Heller and Trevor with The Warner Siblings, Regular Show cast and Pokémon. The Darker and Edgier clashes nearly constantly with the Lighter and Softer, leaving quite a bipolar, chaotic game.
  • My Greatest Second Chance: Naoto sees Ink City as a chance to prove she's fully capable of handling being stuck in another world.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Benson after realizing that he killed Rigby.
    • Thrasher after he accidentally shows Misery what he's seen.
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Heloise mockingly has "nicknames" for various characters, including "Ladybird" for Mordecai, "Roadkill" for Rigby, "Gumballs" for Benson, and now it seems "Freak" for Yakko.
    • Dr. Nefarious just can't seem to get Heloise's name right in Log #8.
    • A Running Gag with Dr. Chipotle Jr., carried over from his canon.
    • The players aren't even safe from this trope; it tends to happen to people who hang out in the OOC chatroom over time.
  • Name Drop: The city is in fact called Ink City by its inhabitants.
  • Name's the Same: Mordecai and Mordecai. Has led to the players referring to them as "Birdecai" and "Mordecat", respectively.
  • Nice Guy: Crmsn is one of these in the Troubled but Cute way, complete with a dose of Obfuscating Stupidity and Broken Hero-ness to judge by a recent thread.
  • No Ending: Happens occasionally to some threads and/or logs. Sometimes these are even referenced later as Noodle Incidents.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When Yakko, Rigby and Crmsn tried to rescue Trevor from A Fate Worse Than Death, their reward was getting blown up by Bass.
    • Belldandy helps Trevor repair his building, unaware it was damaged by Optimus Prime breaking Aisling out. Trevor immediately starts plotting to run experiments on her instead.
  • Not Distracted by the Sexy: Yakko, who normally forces himself into the arms of pretty ladies, finds The Mayor's Consort just a little too freaky to hit on.
  • Not So Different: After Event #1, Heloise tries to convince Yakko of this, leading to a We Can Rule Together speech.
  • Not So Weak: Rigby.
  • Notes Full Of Crazy: Mordecai had these towards the beginning of his stay in the City.
  • Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Watching Optimus Prime and Aisling dote on each other after he saved her caused this for Caroline, given her plans to betray him to Starscream.
    • Ichigo does this to Swindle when she tells him about the World Split, unaware that he's asking about it because Megatron wants him to break the Well.
  • Odd Couple: Young, optimistic and cheerful Courier Priscilla loyally works for and is highly respectful towards the worldly, uptight and business-minded Mr. House.
  • Odd Friendship: Due to the range of canons and the characters all being brought together in one place, several of these have popped up.
  • Oh Crap: Benson after the aftermath of Log #3.
    • After World Split was over, the Mayor and Painted Lady went around fixing people who were still messed up by the event. One of these people was Bass, who repaid their efforts by... stealing SOMETHING from them both with Get Ability. Considering World Split could have been caused by a similar event in the past and Bass being... well, Bass, this causes an Oh Crap moment on the part of the Mayor and the players.
    • Priscilla after discovering what Mr. House really looks like.
    • Trevor captures Aisling. Aisling gets her hands on Trevor's communciator long enough to get a message to the City, crying out for Optimus before being cut off. Optimus responds accordingly. When he announces his arrival with Bold Inflation, Trevor realizes the jig is up...
  • Older Than They Look/Insistent Terminology: Heloise continually insists she's not a little kid.
    • Ava barely looks over ten years old, but, as she admits to Souji, she's 408 years old.
  • One-Hit Kill: What happened when Trevor pushed Bass too far and was on the receiving end of an Earthbreaker at point-blank range.
    • Total Party Kill: The second time, he leveled Trevor's entire compound, pretty much instantly decimating everybody inside. Including himself, naturally.
  • One Steve Limit: Averted; in addition to the existing Mordecai and Mordecai situation, there's now two Mews in the city - one from the same confused AU that Bass comes from, and the other from a continuity much closer to the games' nature. And they couldn't be more different. Two different Optimus Primes and four Starscreams (as well as two Starscream clones) have also appeared in the city.
    • I Am Not Shazam: Prior to Kat's appearance, Berri was the only Mew in town and was referred to by her species name all around. After Kat's appearance and her own need to go incognito, she adopted an old nickname given to her by a former friend.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Heloise towards Mordecai and Rigby, after Rigby tells Jimmy that she killed Mordecai and Benson.
    • It's really the only reason that she bothered to save them from Johnny C. Of course, she outright admitted that she planned on doing something worse to them...
  • Ontological Mystery
  • Order Versus Chaos: The reason why Dr. Norrington and Eris aren't particularly fond of one another - he's Order while she's Chaos.
  • Parasol of Prettiness: Dahlia. Ichigo also likes to use paper drink umbrellas like this.
  • Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Certain residents engage in this frequently, such as Trevor, GLaDOS, and Berri. Especially when speaking to each other.
    • Souji and Tai Lung get into a bout of this when Tai Lung answers Souji's question about weapons just to imply he's weak for wanting one instead of learning Kung Fu.
  • Pay Evil Unto Evil: Anyone victimized by Heloise tends to come to this conclusion pretty quickly.
  • Pet the Dog: When Kat arrives and Trevor initially mistakes her for the Mew who subjected him to And I Must Scream, Berri immediately contacts him to clear things up, even going so far as to offer a chance for physical revenge. Trevor, having learned nothing from his ordeal, promptly starts Hannibal Lecturing her.
  • Phony Psychic: Petitus claims to be psychic in order to explain away all of his knowledge, since revealing his lack of a personal fourth wall could be disastrous.
  • Playing Both Sides: Swindle, being a Con Artist, started trying this right away. However, the Decepticons and Autobots in Ink City are mostly very different than the ones he's used to, putting him over his head very swiftly.
  • Poking The Fourth Wall: What happens when you go too far out into the forest or ocean.
    • Yakko pointing out to Mordecai that the reason he can't die is that they're all cartoon characters counts.
    • And now, Mordecai is starting to realize the bounds of reality (while Yakko smashes right through them.)
    • And then there's Deadpool, who seems to be aware that he's a character in an online RPG.
    • Petitus is fully aware that he's on a text-based roleplaying game and is able to freely communicate with his mun.
  • Pointy Ears: Legato, very much so.
  • Politically Incorrect Boss: Cave Johnson manages to offend just about everyone he talks to, aside from Caroline.
  • Pronoun Trouble: Legion's status as a mobile platform for 1,183 Geth makes it difficult for other residents to know just how to address... him/her/it. (When Ichigo first notices how it refers to himself, she thinks it's using the Royal We).
    • In a way, how Meredith addresses who she calls "The Creator"; the title refers to one person, but she refers to them as 'they' and 'them' when she's asked to describe 'them'.
  • Put on a Bus: Happens quite often to characters who are inactive. However, there's actually a canon explanation for random people in the city disappearing... an extremely unpleasant one...
    • Jimmy at the end of Log #36, in one of the most heartwrenching exits possible.
    • The Bus Came Back: Occasionally, characters who previously appeared in the City and left wind up returning. Sometimes they're the exact same character; sometimes... not.
    • A certain character's bus boarding becomes a plot-heavy Wham! Episode, as she's met by an avatar of her player.
  • Replacement Goldfish: After Caroline quits, Cave immediately weedles Yuko into becoming his new assistant.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Ichigo is a big believer in "Noblesse oblige", thanks to how she was raised and the role she plays back home. Someone misusing or abusing whatever power they have is a major Berserk Button for her.
  • Running Gag: All the stitchpunks react poorly to a single line on the Sign: "7) There is no number 7." Leads to a Brick Joke when the twins steal the Sign so they can remove that line and Seven shows up immediately.
  • Sapient Steed: Kat, being a Mew and able to shape-shift into Pokemon large enough to be ridden, has acted as one on several occasions.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Legato.
  • Secret Keeper: Several characters, as they've learned more about the nature of the City, have chosen to uphold the masquerade.
  • Science Is Bad: Thanks to her experiences back home, Berri believes all scientists are evil, soulless monsters.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Doctor Norrington, in spades.

Yakko: "Mostly Natural"? I thought that just meant "History".
Norrington: Precisely. Not all events of historical importance occur incontrovertibly, in fact, most do not. Best to endorse honestly.
Yakko: ... How 'bout endorsing coherency?

  • The Scapegoat: Heloise blames Mordecai and Yakko for the voice in her head because she can't think of any other explanation.
  • Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Zorua lays an unintentional one on Yosuke when she takes the form of a girl she saw in some photographs around his house: Saki.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Kat and Bass appear to be spiraling awkwardly toward this, especially if Berri's method of teasing is anything to go by.
  • Ship Tease: Dr. Chipotle Jr./Heloise is teased quite often. In the end though, her heart completely belongs to and always did to Jimmy.
  • Shout-Out: Tons, but here's a notable few:
    • Once during a crack community meme, Phoenix managed to trick Lucius. He was rewarded with a golden fiddle.
    • An alternate universe version of Jimmy pulls off one to the Dead Parrot sketch in the crack community Bizarro Meme, which is equally hilariously lampshaded immediately by Lucius.
    • Jimmy playing and singing "Fallen Angel" on his guitar on New Year's.
    • Deadpool thinks that a good mercenary name for Rigby would be Reverend Putty.
    • Apparently, Heloise is a fan of The Cure.
  • Sidetracked by the Analogy: When Maya attempts to convince Optimus Prime to fire his lasers:

Maya: Well that's like saying 'How do I make this ice cream taste better without adding any chocolate'. Sure, I could use butterscotch, but who does that anymore? I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're butterscotch and now I want ice cream.
Optimus: Studies from the world wide web show that approximately 23% of the population still consider butterscotch a popular condiment.

Mordecai: This is for ripping my heart out, you bitch.
Veser: FUCK YOU, CTHULHU!
Megavolt: Alright you inky sons of bitches... Let's get DANGEROUS.
The above line being just before Yakko and Megavolt's last stand.

  1. ↑ Actually, he's a the result of the Autobots of his universe using Starsceam's coding to try and make jet-form Autobots.
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