Musou Verse

The Musou Verse is a collection of three quest threads in the style of Ruby Quest and Dive Quest - Musou Quest, Rider Quest, and the flashback episode Musou Quest Gaiden. They are collected at the Team Phantom Tiger blog and discussed fervently on the IRC channel "#musouquest" on Rizon.

Musou Quest begins with a newly-made ace logging onto their first serious game of a ~.hack~-esque version of Dynasty Warriors: Gundam; things get serious when a "Static Gundam" glitch mech appears on the field and turns out to deal real, physical damage to the players - the player character, named "Red Hawk", is very rapidly drawn into the conspiracy while kicking copious amounts of ass. The first thread was adequate at best. Then it got FREAKING COOL.

Rider Quest is set in the same universe, following a joke made in a previous thread about Red Hawk living in the currently in-vogue Tokusatsu-filming area; it turns out that a number of Kamen Riders actually DO exist, and that Kamen Rider shows are made using actual footage of their combats in a Power Rangers-esque cut-and-paste style. The main character is a pseudo-Hard Boiled Private Eye named Jack, who used to play "The Game" Way Back When; this Quest borrows heavily from Kamen Rider W, though with a significantly more Film Noir feel to it.

Musou Quest Gaiden again focuses on Jack - but much younger, back when he still played, and was completed shortly thereafter, fleshing out the story and generally functioning as epic Foreshadowing.

Recently, a teaser for what appears to be a pure-fiction sequel, Musou Quest: Generation Break, went up on a portion of Terminal's home site; view it here.

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Tropes used in Musou Verse include:

• Action Girl: Goddamn near everyone. Even Lacus. Especially Mayu and Red Hawk. Double-especially Cagalli.
• The All-Concealing "I": Except with "you" instead of "I", as Musou Quest is written from Second Person - it was a number of chapters before Red Hawk was confirmed female (and even then, only in the IRC channel).
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Kira. It's up in the air as to whether he's just a jackass, or whether he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
  • Seems to have been both. Word of God is that he's both.
• Arc Words: For Musou Quest, "Way Back When", referring to the events that went on years ago - Musou Quest Gaiden covers some of it, using Jack as a mouthpiece.
• The Atoner: Hinted at with Jack, see What You Are in the Dark below.
• Author Appeal: Writing big 1980s-kung-fu-style fight scenes. To the extent that a floor randomly appears in a satcannon so that the fight can be cooler.
• Backstory: This is pretty much the point of Gaiden.
• BFG: Jack's gun, Daiki, which is a Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum.
  • If you stick this down your pants, you are compensating not only for your own penis, but for every penis within a 25-mile radius.
    • Also, Fancy light shows when Lacus gives him a bullet-shaped Gaia Memory.
• Canon Foreigner / Canon Immigrant: Lacus, who functions as a go-between for Rider and Musou Quest.
• Catch Phrase: Jack's "I hope the scars are worth it" post-henshin quote.
• Cerebus Syndrome: From EVERYTHING EXPLODING EVERYWHERE FOREVER to conspiracy and drama.
  • And then back again.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Red Hawk seems to have a problem with this.
• Crazy Awesome: Shinn Asuka. The fact that he THREW a goddamned bus at a Static Gundam is proof of his badassery.
  • He keeps doing it.
• Creator Breakdown: Rider Quest was created because Terminal was sick of writing Musou Quest and had just binged the first twenty-five episodes of Kamen Rider Double. Also physical example; as noted below, if Terminal is running quests then he's not sleeping at nights, so occasionally his body gives out on him.
• Crimefighting with Cash: Treize Kushrenada, financial backer of La Résistance.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Where ISN'T there one?
  • A big example is when Second Red Hawk fights DOMON KASSHU To a draw. In a Zaku. Completely vapourising both mechs in the process.
    • The ending. Dear god.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: Seabook in a tuxedo, for a start. Also the above-mentioned compensation joke.
• Death Course: Cagalli has to run through one in Gaiden.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Red Hawk's fight with Mayu after she collects her new Gouf.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Holly, who becomes an Ascended Extra, and Mayu, who becomes the Love Interest.
  • ... and then both end up in an OT3.
• Epileptic Trees: OH SO MUCH. (Also note that the more meta branches on the top left of the MusouVerse chart can become their own little can of worms.)
• Erotic Eating: Mayu and Red Hawk, sort of.
• Everybody Smokes: Jack, Tiger, Alex.
• Everything's Better with Spinning: If possible, this ALWAYS happens in the buildup to a ZAKU KICK.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Taken to eleven with Red Hawk; she now has an ability called 'Seduce'.
  • Naturally, NO guys seem to want her. Even though she once dressed with the combined style of Excellen Browning and The Tenth Doctor.
    • Word of God: More like she doesn't notice them.
• Famous Ancestor: One of the many theories surrounding Red Hawk and Way Back When.
  • And it's totally right.
• Fan Nickname: For Red Hawk, "GIANT METAL KENSHIRO"; for Jack, "Kamen Rider Noir" (which quickly becomes canon).
• Featureless Protagonist: Red Hawk, initially. Nobody's sure what she looks like or sounds like, and her gender was only confirmed on the IRC channel for a very long time.
• Finishing Move: Jack's various Memory Breaks; Red Hawk's ZAKU/GOUF KICK.
• Foreshadowing: This is kind of the point of Gaiden, but especially notable is Cagalli having the Blade Gaia Memory.
  • More to the point, it epically foreshadows the real reason why the game is "real".
• Friendship Moment: Jack and Lacus in Musou Quest Gaiden, Holly and Red Hawk after the latter lands up in sickbay with broken ribs. The latter overlaps with a Now Let Me Carry You.
• Game Breaker: Lacus says that the reason Capture the Flag games no longer happen is because Usso always won.
• Gender Flip: Athrun is actually a girl named Alex.
• Growing the Beard: Musou Quest as of the second and third threads.
• The Hedonist: Mayu has shades of this; she loves to fight, her idea of a date involves Spanish pastries, chocolate, and a very long makeout session...
• Heterosexual Life Partners: The hivemind likes to paint Holly and the Red Hawk like this.
  • But then...
• Honor Before Reason: Domon, but he can get away with it.
• Hot-Blooded: Red Hawk, Domon, Mayu to a lesser extent.
• Hot Librarian: Word of God is that Terminal was aiming for this with Alex's meatspace form.
• Humble Hero: Red Hawk.
  • Well... Most of the time. Sometimes there's bragging.
• I Am Who??: Red Hawk SO SO MUCH.
• Jerkass: Yamato. Oh, Yamato.
• Killed Off for Real: Patrick Zala, at the hands of the Kabuto Service. Or so it seems anyway.
• Leitmotif: The first Red Hawk has one. ^{[dead link]}
• Lady of War: Cagalli has serious aspects of this.
• La Résistance: Alex and co.'s little underground 'LAN party'.
• Les Yay: Between Mayu and Red Hawk, obviously.
  • And then Holly and Red Hawk.
• Little Miss Badass / Cute Bruiser: Mayu, of course.
• Love Triangle: Red Hawk, Holly (likely), and Mayu. The IRCers love joking about throwing Master Asia and Domon in there.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: ALL GUNDAMS vs. DAI-KOEI
• Memetic Badass: Red Hawk and Mayu, especially Mayu.
• Mind Screw: Due to the lack of information doled out 'for free', it gets like this when you start to consider everything that's going on. There's a running conspiracy chart that gets posted at the start (and, often, the end) of each thread.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Mayu is a very touchyfeely person. Holly is also occasionally fond of The Glomp.
• Not a Morning Person: Jack. Parodied in the way he drinks his coffee.
• Now Let Me Carry You: Holly to Red Hawk during their Friendship Moment.
• Old Shame: Terminal has this attitude towards the first thread.
  • And towards the entire series, considering it a "failed experiment".
• Original Generation: Both versions of Red Hawk, Jack, Tiger, Ares. Mayu is a pseudo-example, as she dies in the first five minutes of Gundam Seed Destiny and Terminal had to make her personality out of wholecloth.
• Over and Under the Top: Red Hawk is Over, Jack is Under (of course, comparitively speaking)...
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Sort of; Seabook and Tobia often tend to leave things to Red Hawk when it comes to La Résistance work, with the implication that they're doing important things offscreen.
• Poster Gallery Bedroom: Cagalli's, as seen in Musou Quest Gaiden - covered in UFC and WWE posters.
• Psycho for Hire: "Angel" in Rider Quest, hiring out his services by a Viral Tie-In site "Kabuto Service" (now taken down, unfortunately).
• Put on a Bus: Bright, who only appeared in the first episode and Musou Quest Gaiden.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Lacus, Cagalli, Kira/Yamato, Athrun/Alex... so basically the entirety of the SEED Cast.
• Reverse Mole: Schwarz, who may or may not be Domon's brother. Or Red Hawk's brother.
  • And then turned out to be neither.
• Ridiculous Procrastinator: The author, Terminal, who at the time of this writing (October) has not handed in any of his professional writing coursework since May - because of MQ getting in the way.
• Rule of Cool: Terminal claims that the reason the second thread was any good was because he decided that everything should run on this.
• Schedule Slip: Terminal lives in Australia. The Quests start at midnight for him (GMT+9/11 depending on Daylight Savings). If he starts sleeping like a normal person, threads don't happen.
• Shipping: Take your pick. Red Hawk/Holly, Red Hawk/Mayu, Red Hawk/Mayu/Holly, Red Hawk/Domon.... really, Red Hawk and anyone.
• Shout-Out: Lots, but most notably, Jack's "Accel Gundam" in Musou Quest Gaiden, which is a Valkyrie version of the Turbokat.
• Shown Their Work / Did Not Do the Research: Both at once! A lot of the cast manages to be quite in-character - unfortunately, the ones from shows that Terminal hasn't seen are less-so.
• Smoking Is Cool: Jack, again.
• Sure Why Not / Throw It In: Terminal holds that he avoids plotholes by not having a plot, and by stealing bits and pieces of the conspiracy theorizing on #musouquest that he likes and making them canon.
  • Also the cause behind Red Hawk getting that name - it's the name of the group that did some of the initial scans of The Legend of Koizumi, which Terminal is heavily into.
• There Are No Coincidences: ... according to the fanbase/participants.
• Trick Arrow: Jack's Accel Gundam and its variety of missiles.
• The Worf Effect: Zechs suffers from this, initially. Then he stops jobbing.
• Took a Level in Badass: Basically everyone, but especially Cagalli, who is presented as a fantastic duelist.
• The Virus: The Static Zeta exhibits this.
• Twincest: HEAVILY implied to have happened in the past with Red Hawk and her now-oddly-absent "Onee-Sama".
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Red Hawk's father is very disappointed in her, and nobody is quite sure why.
  • May or may not be meta. Terminal's father seems to be rather disappointed in him.
    • Word of God: Not meta, merely an Aborted Arc.
• What You Are in the Dark: Angel to Jack in the second episode of Rider Quest, with it implied that Jack failed such a test before. This time he says "I'll know." and punches Angel out.
• Whip It Good: Red Hawk's custom Gouf, Epyon, anything using a heat rod.
• Wild Mass Guessing: Again, oh so very much.
• Word of God: Everything related to the "IRC" tab on Conspiracy Chart.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Culminating in Red Hawk performing a Tombstone Piledriver on DOMON.
  • Also Char hitting the flying armbar in his Sazabi.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Treize suggests that this is the reason that the Static Gundams cause physical damage.
  • Except it turned out to actually be due to a Gaia Memory.