Ride Alone Complex

Sequel spinoff to Kamen Rider: Hour of the Void, set sixty years later in a slightly alternate reality. Yet another play-by-IRC on Rizon, this one using #RideAloneComplex and DM'ed by the illustrious Haken_Browning of Team Phantom Tiger and /m/erotica fame, it serves as a testbed for the uTOHpia Toku-themed e-splat for Mutants and Masterminds (itself drafted by those KRV players carrying over to RAC who mourned the loss of the system in its shift to near-pure freeform).

RAC functions more as a "Good End" to the previous game (when it isn't busy reading more like a scathing in-character critique thereof); the heroes won, and some serious efforts on FangOreo's part have brought Grongi, Fangires, Orphenochs, and Worms out into society under their own power - especially Fangires, with a FangOreo-backed Development & Pioneer engineering a Life Energy feeding substitute (and Coca-Cola Expy) known as FN-TAU.

The bright future has its dark spots, however: though the kaijin races are mostly integrated into society, they bring with them a whole new grade of criminal activity against both humans and their own kind. To counter their threat, the FangOreo construct a "public security firm" (more like "privately-owned military"), "Justice Unlimited Nocturne-Kinetic Elimination Riders", or JUNKER, which is sort of a "good guy" version of ZECT, complete with various "trooper" level mooks and more elite Riders, represented by PCs and NPCs across the spectrum...to say nothing of the various foreign and domestic henshin tech rivals cropping up amid the All-Riders expo.

Find it here.

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Tropes used in Ride Alone Complex include:

• Age-Appropriate Angst: Zig Zagged with Kenoko. Counting summers, she's 78 years old, but she's still 18 years old physically due to having an unaging body. She angsts about the fact that most of her old friends are gone with the attitude of an 18-year-old. Michelle, on the other hand, subverts it, by acting like a nineteen-year-old girl who is having too much fun.
  • Please note that Michelle is a 97-year-old Showaborg who looks like she's about one-third her actual age. That would give most 97-year-old women a reason to act like that.
• Arc Words: "A World Without Danger" is rapidly cropping up as something a lot of characters are looking for.
• Artificial Human: Kenoko and Michelle (yes, Alexice's mother), and that's just the PCs.
  • Now including Saki and Stuart (two people from Kenoko's past), and the recently-Showaborg'd Miyami (one person from Kenoko's present.)
• Author Appeal: One for every contributor, it seems:
  • Haken: Shout Outs of practically every sort (particularly to PlayStation 1/2-era video games). Also Yuri Fanboy and Ethical Hedonist (mostly Ethical Slut) of the highest order.
  • Athon: Subverting expectations and Surprisingly Good English for one of the game's two Brazillian players.
  • Advent: Yuri Fanboy with romantic twist.
  • Axel: Martial arts stuff and snarky commentary. His Signature Style is characters who are powerful combatants but emotionally crippled.
  • Raven: Indy Ploy with a lesser Deadpan Snarker attitude than Axel. Or Hot-Blooded. Or a Keet/GenkiGirl. It's hard to tell sometimes. Though those aren't all he enjoys.
    • Perspective: Raven is a somewhat-Hot-Blooded, optimistic Deadpan Snarker; Axel is a highly cynical Aloof Big Brother Snark Knight.
  • Nahd: Taking up Haken's MGS reference specialization of old.
  • Verloren: Not-blissful-at-all complete ignorance of the KRV/RAC cosmology.
  • Cole: Characters who are Smarter Than They Look, or who utilize either Obfuscating Stupidity or Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass.
• Badass (more specifically, World of Badass, with the plot focusing on a Badass Crew):
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: What appears to be a primary motivation for tapping new Riders, considering how Rebecca and Haru got in and how eagerly Xander was lifted to OsuTrooper.
    • Authority Equals Asskicking: The OTHER motivation for tapping new Riders - namely inspiring them into this trope, considering how Kenoko got on board. May also play a factor in retention, if Pacifica's debut is any indication.
  • Badass Abnormal: Haru, Kenoko, Michelle, Xander, and implied with Luca.
  • Badass Automaton: How about Punchy?
  • Badass Biker: Kenoko primarily.
  • Badass Bookworm: Akebara.
    • On the metascale, Axel and Raven are type-2 Vitriolic Best Buds who turn into Badass Bookworms if you screw with the other one. Actually, that describes Axel's attitude towards most of the other players.
  • Badass Bystander: Xander.
  • Badass Grandma: Haruka, Yukari, Kaoru, and Aelita. (Akebara, Kenoko, and Michelle, in spite of the age, lack the temperament that goes with it.)
    • Badass Family: By extension, Haruka/Yukari/Kaoru and Haru.
  • Badass Longcoat: Kenoko again, especially in Nigo mode.
  • Badass Long Hair: It'll only take one Alternity Migraine for Vincent to turn into this. Assuming it's the right universe, natch.
    • And whaddya know, the right universe's counterpart is now a disembodied mentor voice stuck in his head.
  • Badass Normal: Rebecca.
  • Badass Teacher: Aelita.
  • Colonel Badass: Haruka.
  • Little Miss Badass: Haru, Ake, and Aelita sort of.
  • Submissive Badass: Off-duty Haruka, considering the whole Sirknight Fangire thing.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Pretty much everyone in KRV that didn't carry over is understood to have done so (even if Kenoko wasn't around to see it). Even Aoki.
    • To some people's disgust.
• Beat Panel: Axel uses it in his writing style, often simply saying "beat".
• Berserk Button: Clearly the chance of a mind control-and-kidnapping mix isn't simply a meta sticking point to the RAC authors.

leads to I Have Many Names when he's playing in a different game that uses "nickup" rules - "Xiaohu", "Wei_Angxian", and "Fionna" are all Axel as well.

• Blatant Lies: Everything Tomoe says to Kenoko in this scene. And Kenoko believes every word.
• Brick Joke: Invoked continuously and furiously by Haken and Axel regarding discarded or swerved-away elements from their prior games.
• Broken Bird: Kenoko's defining trope pre-Calibur, and one Haruka swerves into in places during Week 03. Then there's Henne Valkyria, whose spontaneous ejections of Raven Orphenoch feathers make it a bit too literal.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Pink Lemonade do it - but then they're really allowed to, being a Game Breaking proto-Battle Couple of Genius, Lightning Bruisers.
• Charm Person: This is Akebara's signature non-Rider power. As she explains to Haru, everything about her is carefully calculated to evoke this.
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: Haruka's tapping of Kenoko for JUNKER amounts to this, because Kenoko is suffering Phlebotinum Breakdown.
• Cool Bike: This being Kamen Rider, but Kenoko's Jet Sliger really stands out, given that it can drive through the air (literally; road appears in the air in the manner of the Denliner).
  • Vincent's MultiRunner/ViRunner has four forms: One street-level, one that can Ramming Speed, one with twin BFGs, and one that can Time Travel whilst going ludicrously fast... By using cards to power it up.
• Cool Car: Akebara's 1978 Pontiac Firebird, which she uses in the manner of Akio's Car. Ake talks to it to the point of Cargo Ship, too.
• Couch Gag and/or Evolving Credits: The workspace's main page often changes, having things struck out and shuffled about as the situation in-character changes.
• Creator Breakdown: Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later:

Haken: So we got a little more in-depth about this entire mess last night, and we've come to the conclusion that it wasn't Couch that was right, but Gue. Furthermore, I have become Gue. Guys. Help me change back. Please.

• Dangerously Genre Savvy (initially Wrong Genre Savvy): Akebara acts like this at times, being extremely familiar with the Rider Wars of the past. The only problem is that most of the information was imparted to her by Wyll.
• Dare to Be Badass: Akebara, to Rebecca, during their first meeting. Which is ironic, because she was on her way to fulfill such a dare from Wyll at the time.
• Death Is Cheap: So it appears with anyone using the uTOH template for Undead or buying up similar powers. Including Wyll, who didn't even know he BOUGHT resurrection when brought back through his contract with Leksi.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Or, in Miyami's case, devotion based off of infatuation due to Kenoko's ranks of the Distracting Looks feat. This is at least the second time that this has caused a situation involving one of Axel's characters.
  • Distracting Looks winds up not even factoring into Henne and Kyon being "Befriended."
• Disproportionate Retribution: Wyll, to Ake's unnamed father, in her backstory.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Rebecca's Riding Lesson. Just... wow.
  • It's even funnier when you consider the Revolutionary Girl Utena Shout-Out that opens the scene.
  • And of course there's Ake's car, which is statted out to invoke this.
  • Kenoko's line of thought when grappling with Saki. Axel apparently likes this trope.
• Dramatic Ellipsis: Kenoko and Akebara's player (best known as Axel) is really prone to this. Your Mileage May Vary on results.
• Face Palm: Wyll does one in-character when the Proto Driver mispronounces the ZX henshin as "Zed-Ex" - it's meant to be "Zeh-Cross". Kenoko is also occasionally fond of them.
• Fever Dream Episode: Haruka slogging through The Sorrow's river, accosted by KRV's Maya vi Inoue and saved only though the intervention of her fellow Riders and some Cobra Unit Emotion Gaia Memory weirdness. Initially intended as foreshadowing for a potential Mid-Season Upgrade, but A) Axel bitched backstage about the idea of Haruka having a Midseason Upgrade, and B) the Parasite Eve-themed upgrade that Haruka eventually settled on had better Brick Joke value.
• Firing One-Handed: Oh how very mocked by Korin and Aelita in the former's Faiz initiation duel:

Psyga!Aelita: *following Korin missing with Single Mode* Rule Number 1: One-handed shooting is for gangstas and faggots. Don't be either!
(Psyga's Flying Attacker flips into Blaster Rifle mode)
Aelita: Corollary 1A! Underslung weapons are just plain ridiculous! (lets loose with BURST MODE...and misses)
Faiz!Korin: Self-Demonstrating Article, Aelita-san!

• First-Name Basis: Kenoko with everybody because that's just how she is. Akebara's own habit (barring calling Kenoko Senpai) seems like a mistake (being born and raised in Japan), until you realise she was taught by Wyll, who isn't Japanese to begin with.
• Fridge Brilliance: Much of Axel's writing style seems to rely on it - for example, Nigo's threats to the FangOreo are more Narm than anything... until you find out that Nigo is just everything Kenoko represses, and she was never any good at making threats.
  • Also Wyll's themesongs - the out-of-universe Throw Your Arms Around Me, a bittersweet Anti-Love Song about a one-night stand, and the in-universe Scott Pilgrim-by-Plumtree that he uses as his alarm clock - the given themesong of an apparent Non-Action Guy who is in fact a dangerous fighter and has a reputation as a ladykiller.
• Funetik Aksent: Grongi Cockney. Now more than ever, given an actual non-American is writing the lesser Grongi characters now.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Ake to Kenoko after Haruka's attempt misfires, snapping her out of her Heroic BSOD.
  • Also used by Aelita towards Rebecca, just before she makes the switch from BLACK to a Decade from some Crapsack World alternate future where SHOCKER wins. Seen here.
• Good Guy Bar: It's heavily implied that Wyll's bar is this, seeing as how he never quite manages to charge JUNKER personnel.
  • If Alex is manning the bar though, you're paying for your drinks, JUNKER or not. Just as well Haruka wants to pay off the freebies.
  • Along with Bronze-expy 365 serving as the Local Hangout.
• Good People Have Good Sex: Variant explored between Haru and Akebara - Ake is normally apathetic to the idea of sex and is implied to have engaged in it lovelessly for reasons of subterfuge. When Haru kisses her, the emotional response blows Ake away.
  • Further deconstructed when a Haruka/Yukari/Ake threesome (NSFW) (SFW summary and commentary) goes awry, and Ake gets an eyeful of What Haruka Is In Bed.
• Heroic BSOD: Kenoko has one when Haruka threatens to send her back to THI.
  • As does Haru following Ake's treatment of her post-Fangout.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Wyll and Alex. Although Alex switch-hits and Wyll is practically asexual except where certain people are involved (or if it's for a job).
• Hollywood Healing: Averted in Axel's writing style - when his characters get hurt, it shows until they heal (though Kenoko has Healing Factor). The fact that Xander manages to walk off a broken arm is Foreshadowing of his status as a Native.
• Ho Yay: Axel and Haken, according to some members of the fanbase - mostly the people who see Axel as Estrogen Brigade Bait.
• Fundamentally Female Cast: There are... what, 3 male PCs and one male DMPC? And then there's so damn many female characters that it'll hurt too much to count them.
  • Thankfully manages to avert the girls-only Competence Zone that plagued its predecessor.
  • With the addition of three new male PCs (Masaki, Joe, and Adriel), this is starting along the path to being less than accurate.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Axel elevates this to the level of Crowning Moment of Indifference when Haken propositions him (or rather, his characters). Ironic given that he's playing Akebara.
• In-Joke: Wyll calls the Kinder Surprises he gets for Aelita "suicide capsules", which is only funny if you know Axel personally (he's hypoglycemic and so are two of his characters).
• Indy Ploy: Ake declares that she will do this in this session.
  • Also Raven and Axel's preferred method of strategy, with Raven preferring a relaxed approach whereas Axel switches plans at the speed of light. Tends to cause massive amounts of frustration when one of his plans is blocked only for him to use the blocking method as leverage for something else.
• Kidnapped by an Ally: This is how Haruka eventually taps Kenoko. Kenoko is not pleased.
  • Somewhat subverted with Tenpai later "kidnapping" Becca, in that no one (except maybe Axel) knew if he's really an ally, due to his preferences towards doing things his own way. Not to mention that she stayed with him willingly. Once again, Kenoko is not pleased.
• Lampshade Hanging: The page with all the preludes lampshades how hard Kenoko got shafted in KRV proper.
• Large Ham: The majority of Haken's characters. Yes, even Aelita.
  • The Proto Driver is this in the Pink Lemonade preludes. Word of God is that Wyll toned it down for RAC proper.

Proto Driver: >>KIIIIIIIIIIIIIING COOOOOOBRRRAAAAAAAA<<

• Last Girl Wins: Used as an almost-cruel subversion of First Girl Wins - after doing a Ship Tease (and then some) with Alice and Alex for all of KRV (plus some playful flirting with Haruka and more serious attempts with Faruko)... Wyll apparently ends up with Aelita.
  • Played more of its own accord with Kenoko settling with Rebecca after all of her KRV relationships wind up irrevocably burnt. (Excepting maybe Haruka, but then she's already married and constantly barred from using Charm Person to set the mood.)
    • Though Kenoko merely points out that she doesn't have to use it to set the mood...
• Les Yay: Yukari, Haruka, and Kaoru, obviously.
  • Kenoko and Rebecca started off as an Official Couple, but with their Tenpai-induced breakup it seems Kenoko's moved on to a more swinging-friendly setup.
  • The Ake-Haru-Korin-Miyuki Love Triangle discussed below.
  • Kyon's infatuation with Henne is played as an over-the-top deconstruction of Haruka's infatuation with Yukari.
• Lethal Joke Character: Haruka constantly touts Black RX Unit 2 as one of these. Only time will tell if it takes.
  • Given that Masaki is now its owner, that's half of it settled, at least.
• Let's Get Dangerous: Wyll, of all people, demonstrates this in Akebara's backstory - after doing nothing for all of the prequel, he turns up and dusts a Fangire in a heartbeat with his never-seen-in-KRV Proto-Decade Driver. There's also the part where he and Aelita completely rolled SHOCKER's Alaska facility singlehandedly, mowing through pseudo-Riders like mooks and making Nineball look like trash.
  • Akebara demonstrates her own during, of all places, her seduction of Haruka... where the entire thing is carefully plotted on her part. Watch that girl.
• Love Triangle: Haru-Korin-Miyuki-Xander-Ake is a weird setup where:
  • Xander ships Haru and Korin but crushes on Haru,
  • Miyuki "works" for Haru, ships Haru and Korin, but crushes on Korin,
  • Korin is into Haru in a big way (but totally willing to reciprocate Miyuki's crush on her), and
  • Ake is completely unaware that this setup exists and exhibits Single-Target Sexuality towards Haru, who is the initiator of their one intimiate moment (thus far) that is Safe, Sane, and Consensual.
    • Further, while Xander and Miyuki both exhibit I Want My Beloved to Be Happy, Miyuki has shades of Die for Our Ship - she and Korin both briefly consider (and are told by Punchy in those exact words) stooping to Murder the Hypotenuse when they see Haru and Ake holding hands.
    • And then, Korin turns out to be pseudo-tsundere for Xander. The entire situation gets talked out and has a thorough Lampshade Hanging when Xander and Korin go over it.
  • Kenoko actively averts a love triangle situation between herself, Becca, and newcomer Saki when she realises the trope could come into play.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Kenoko does this in her introduction chapter, being blown up and set on fire by a robot monster. Not only does she ignore it, she chains her smoke off the robot's burning corpse.
• Mauve Shirt: Rebecca basically starts as this, turns out to be Crazy Awesome, and gets an instant promotion to main character.
  • And still more on the way, as the extras from the Preludes just keep on Ascending.
• Motive Rant: Kenoko has one after Haruka refuses to let her turn down a "job offer", related to her time as the brainwashed SHOCKER Rider-2. Hearing her admit to enjoying herself during it is creepy, as well as her bleeped out threat concerning Yukari and Kaoru.
  • Despite a general "Neutral Zone" tone throughout the game wiki, Haken's own liner notes eventually spiral towards this regarding the foundation of RAC and a few loose ends in KRV that this game finds itself scrambling to gloss over/swerve away from.
• Mundane Utility: Ake has spent years learning how to manipulate people's emotions for reasons of subterfuge (and gambling), but also uses it to help snap Kenoko out of a Heroic BSOD (and give advice on hopefully helping her).
• Nerds Are Sexy: Haruka and Wyll.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Not any specific character (barring Haruka, of course), but the setting itself.
  • DM'S NOTE: The official line is "Nanoha StrikerS meets Shadowrun meets Kamen Rider".
    • The official line seems to have been refined to "Touhou Project meets Kamen Rider" by the middle of Week 04: everyone not on the "Evil" chunk of the alignment chart is friendly to one another, even when they're tearing into each other with vicious debates and/or henshin firepower that pushes M&M's limits.
• No Ending: Cancelled right after the gigantic clusterfuck of a Christmas feast thanks to the new hires being insufferable to schedule around. Haken's postscript indicates the original ending plans involved making QUITE the mess of the set.
• Out with a Bang: How room got cleared out for the crew's new Kuuga:

Haken: Oh no, this isn't an appeasement thing. This is just me finding Aoki being fucked to death hilarious.

• Painting the Fourth Wall: Mostly to do with talking Devices and attacks, co-opting KRV's on-again, off-again tradition of TV-Nihon Rainbow Speak:
  • Punchy's speech is written {{LIKE THIS}}.
  • Proto Driver and Gaia Memory calls are >>LIKE THIS<<. Except when the latter get written-out [<ASCII>///]= Memories.
  • [Kivat] and [Kivaara] get colored text in single squarebrackets.
  • Now joining the pack is a talking Autovajin with +speech noted in plus signs+.
  • Vincent's OrgDriver seems pretty fond of being written /Like This\.
  • Leo, as well as Lydia and Tricia's mental communications with him and each other, are written <<like this>>.
  • Xander's Birth equipment calls are bordered with ()empty parentheses() to denote Cell Medals.
    • Going a bit further, dropping a /whois on Haken or Axel will reveal that their identities on rizon are set to [e-mail] and [e-mail] respectively.
    • Add Raven to the list, with [e-mail].
• Pair the Spares: Miyuki and Korin.
  • Slightly later, Xander and Korin.
• Parental Abandonment: Let's see. Kenoko's parents are dead (and she had all but run away from home in KRV to begin with), Miyuki and Korin have been kicked out (well, Korin ragequit, but it was totally justified because her parents sucked), Xander doesn't have any (It Makes Sense in Context), Rebecca's are presumably in America, Ake's are both dead (see Self-Made Orphan on her page), Leksi's unseen uncle foists her off on the "Peanut Gallery" at the earliest opportunity...
  • And now Vincent joins the fray. as even Alex claims to not know who provided that X chromosome. He does know. He's just staying quiet at her request.
• Physical God / Reality Warper: Ace and Sieg's take on how the RAC timeline came to differ from that of the SHOCKERverse whose future they came from seems to paint Haruka as this. Between the oft-mentioned cavorting with Oscar Mike, the IC motive behind Haruka's (and possibly the whole FangOreo's) tactical hiatus from KRV, and Haken simply being the DM, they're probably right.
  • Now confirmed at least for the latter, Haruka ragequitting KRV explicitly cited as the reason the RAC timeline exists as is.
• The Power of Love: Wyll and Ake believe heavily in it.
• Pungeon Master: Haken himself, and his penchant for Multiple Reference Puns. To wit:
  • Haruka, the resident Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot, who's more or less an Utena Gardevoir Strangelove wearing Ursula Replica and wielding a Do Anything Gunblade.
  • Aelita, who's shifted from being the The Boss to Haruka's Strangelove to being the Laguna to her Squall - not to mention the Tron Lines.
  • Jack, the mecha otaku with a name recycled from Haken's Torque backup for KRV (in and of itself an approximation of Naked Snake's real name) and a personality/demeanor that can best be described as "Pirohiko Ichimonji without the dying right off the bat".
  • Korin being some blender of Persona 3's original red-headed Takeba (whose given name is being hijacked by Yukari), the Meganekko of the same name from the Hentai Nightmare Campus, and a fuzzy mix of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council regulars of Code Geass.
  • Even the Mauve Shirts get a turn; Zu-Gara-Da "Gary" Oku managing to earn a "MOTHERFUCKING" between his first and last names, and Ivan Pupurin straddling the line between Obfuscating Stupidity and Ax Crazy.
  • And then there's Wyll's Addiction Displacement, itself a Stealth Pun that relies on Genius Bonus and was never picked up in either KRV or RAC until Axel realised that he'd forgotten to and explained it OOC. Wyll smokes self-rolled lemongrass cigarettes. Citral, found in lemongrass, causes apotosis in cancerous cells in sufficient quantities. So Wyll is smoking anti-cancer cigarettes.
• Rage Quit: Casualties so far include XAN and Couch.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Thanks to being swamped in coursework, Raven wound up dropping playing Michelle in favour of promoting Vincent to main character. Reactions were... generally sad.
• Refuge in Audacity (alternatively, Refuge in Cool): In-universe example - Hardboiled Wyll (see below) makes a cross-dimensional call into Haruka and Aelita's talk show, asks RAC!Aelita for tips on picking up HPL!Aelita, and gets them.
• The Rival: Meta example: Axel to Raven, Haken and Athon; Raven back to him.
• Running Gag: Meta example: Axel is actually Ankh.
  • Not meta example: Miyuki's Highly-Visible Ninja status.
  • Back on the meta scale: Hakenruka's assortment of character body pillows (ostensibly for those nights when Haruka can't have the real deal), pulled out with each IRC signoff. Usually a point of contention, but Actually Pretty Funny when the right Snark Bait is laid:

Haken: *pulling out a Royce bodypillow*
Axel: You could have picked something with a little more class.
Haken: That would leave you without an Aelita pillow.
Axel: I like the double-layered 'class' pun.

• Ship Tease: Every goddamn Pink Lemonade-centric session.
• Shout-Out: Oh man, where to begin. Haken and Axel both really like Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wyll's Good Guy Bar is a Whole-Setpiece-Reference to Callahans Crosstime Saloon, The Last Days of SHOCKHOUND prelude is a whole-title reference to The Last Days of Foxhound and a Whole-Plot Reference to the Laguna portions of Final Fantasy VIII (with the awareness caveats of the Altimate Rewrite version), and another suggested title for it was "The Man With The Proto Driver" (a reference to Laguna's Crowning Music of Awesome Battle Theme Music, "The Man With The Machine Gun")... with this group, it's probably not going to stop anytime soon.
  • Oh God the Hurricane of Puns during aforementioned session's final fight: Nineball gets worn down enough that its AI degrades into that of another (9)...only for Aelita to chain its cries of "You can't do this to the Strongest!" into a riff on Tendou Souji's challenge to Jo Shigeru. One must wonder if it was Wyll calling Aelita a smartass afterwards or Axel calling Haken one.
  • Given that Wyll is a self-noted super-exaggerated Author Avatar who has all of Axel's negative traits and none of his positive ones...
    • Same episode, Wyll steals the Mazinkaiser SKL Badass Boast. Which is probably pretty damn accurate - see the Awesome page for details.
  • Kenoko refers to someone entering their kaijin form as "vamping out".
  • Wyll references Australian musical comedy trio Tripod, using the first line of their song The Lonesome/Gregarious Cowboy.
  • Masaki's personality is this to Lucky Star's Anime Tenchou, despite Masaki's passions having a different focus (Rider-tech) than said store manager's (getting Konata to actually buy something).
  • And then Haruka goes for the goddamn gold during the debut of Kamen Rider Libera:
    • Bronze: The Gear is debuted on Christmas Eve.
    • Silver: Its main armament seems to focus on PE2-era Parasite Energy.
    • Gold: Its activation Invocation parrots one that co-creator Aelita is all too familiar with.
    • Platinum: Haruka's fighting a frenzied Ake at the time, and is herself a little loose in the head from IXA's initial no-sell being reminiscent of the LAST Fangire to wield the Mk.XI...who shares a name with PE1's Bonus Boss.
    • Extra Credit: All sessions save one with the development of Libera as a primary or secondary focus share a title with a theme from one of the PE games (yes, including The 3rd Birthday).
• Shown Their Work: The location visited in Limonade Rose-sur-Seine is based on an actual construction project.
  • Axel is this kind of writer, though the anti-cancer cigarettes joke is probably the most Egregious piece of Shown Their Work ever.
• Show Within a Show: Dr. Sana-chan and Nurse Zecross's "Body Communication" is back, baby. And even taking multi-dimensional calls.
• Shrug of God: Particularly hilarious example: AdventFalls (who mostly writes Shoujo Ai) hadn't decided whether Rebecca was straight/gay/bi by the time he suddenly had to for Akebara's Distracting Looks feat. So he rolled dice for it.
• Sorry I Left the BGM On: Akebara. All the time. Either from her headphones or her Cool Car's radio.
• Spin Offspring: Haru, of the entire FangOreo. (Though Haruka merely counts as an Aunt, due to Kaoru being Yukari's First Girl.)
• Super-Powered Evil Side: This is why Kenoko is quietly dying of Phlebotinum Breakdown - she's convinced that if she transforms into Rider-2, then "Nigo" will come out and start killing people.
  • And rightly so - if Nigo was heroic, taking on all three members of FangOreo in their strongest forms (except Haruka) and managing to completely kite their strategy until Kaoru stopped her personal timeflow would probably qualify as a Crowning Moment of Awesome in its own right.
    • Fortunately, ever since Kenoko obtained her Mid-Season Upgrade, she hasn't really had to worry about that.
• Taking Up the Mantle: My how very Deconstructed, especially in the wake of later Week 03 Monday sessions and the debut of the new Kuuga.

Couch/Kouta Tsukamoto: Meanwhile, from my standpoint, I'm the new guy. I'm liable to jump to conclusions early on both in and out of character because I -wasn't- there for all the sources of all this bitterness, I just see the aftereffects. So this character's story arc is more about someone who knows in his heart, but can't necessarily articulate, what being a Rider means, and in some cases is likely to know that what he sees isn't it. Thus resulting in more of an externally-driven story arc - reacting to the people around him who've become jaded for one reason or another, attempting to live up to what Kuuga's legacy once was and should be again, and hopefully providing some aid for others in a position to receive it.

• Talking in Bed: Used for the aptly named Pillow Talk, complete with a Lampshade Hanging.
• The Reveal: Wyll is Tenpai.
• The Tease: FangOreo. All of them. Even after the siring of Haru via yet-unexplained means of Homosexual Reproduction.
  • And Akebara, wow. Though given her backstory and way of conduct, this actually has darker undertones...
• That Man Is Dead: Invoked in the semi-canon "20 years ago" omake, by Kenoko to Haruka, RE herself.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Invoked in those exact words by Kenoko when Haru-as-Shark-Fangire actually notices her. She then knocks Haru flat in one punch.
• Throw It In: Haken's modus operandi for creating short-notice rollplay/freeform encounters. You can tell which ones are born from thus due to being lifted from various video games (Crab Yummy, Nineball and Tigrex, the Roserade Fangire, and so on).
  • That last one leads to a rather hilarious Does This Remind You of Anything? moment, considering she winds up captured and not killed...
  • Axel is guilty of requesting this, wanting to play anything he stats out (which is why he stats nothing until he's sure he can play it).
  • Raven's just as guilty of this too—Vincent was promoted to main character and Luca came into being entirely because he was bored waiting for a bus home a few times.
• Turn in Your Badge: Invoked by Yukari following Haruka and Ake letting a revitalized Kenoko loose on THI. To say Ake considers it an insult to Haruka would be an understatement.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Xander and Haru are Type 2.
  • Kenoko and Punchy, Alex and Wyll... Axel really like this trope, probably because most of his friendships seem to be like this.
• Wham! Episode: Tuesday evening of week 2. Kenoko hospitalizes Ake for using Becca as a guinea pig, Haru vamps out into Shark Fangire form in front of Ake, and we find out what's behind Kenoko's trust/esteem issues as well as what completely terrifies her.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Wyll's belt put-on, taken straight from Den-O.
  • Tenpai does it, too. Then again, considering they're one and the same...
• What the Hell, Hero?: Akebara and Vincent. Ake seems to be shaping up. This used to be Wyll's schtick.
  • Used to be? Miyuki sure asked that question, if in different words, straight to Wyll's face at least once during Week 03.
  • Haruka is quite possibly descending into it.
    • Diving headfirst by Wednesday of Week 03.
• With Friends Like These...:

Haken: In a shocking twist, Kenoko's beef with Chiyoko is NOT META AT ALL.
Axel: Thanks.

• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Wyll delivers this in the manner of a This Is Gonna Suck - except the subject matter is the Monster Hunter Velociprey and then a Tigrex. (Remember, they're on Isla del Monstruo at the time.)
• You Are Not Alone: Haruka's response to Kenoko's That Man Is Dead. Unfortunately it doesn't stick.
  • More effective when Haruka does it with Ake later.
• You Gotta Have White Hair: Oh God it's back. Haruka and Wyll seem to be the only legacies packing it, but then the new class has Rebecca, Miyuki, maybe Xander...not to mention Akebara having a streak-dye job akin to her mother's.
  • Xander's hair is grey, so close.

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Now has a Film Noir-esque Darker and Edgier Alternate Universe spinoff, Hardboiled Pink Lemonade, set in a Crapsack World where SHOCKER wins and most of the SEES Riders are killed. Focuses on Wyll Ascher and Aelita Schaeffer, running a Private Detective agency called Pink Lemonade. Makes frequent use of the Private Eye Monologue both to transition between scenes and to let the two characters act seperately while sharing screentime.

Hardboiled Pink Lemonade provides examples of

• Affectionate Parody: Haken hangs a lampshade on how Film Noir everything is in his very first line.
• Badass Longcoat: Wyll and Aelita in their various styles.
• City Noir: A cross between this and Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain. Despite the city itself being lit up like a Dutch brothel, it's perpetually thunderstorming overhead, and Wyll can tell it's towards evening because the sky starts letting loose bolts of green lightning. Oh, and the city's name? Neon.
• Cool Guns: Wyll uses a Smith & Wesson .500 magnum, and Aelita prefers a Five-seveN.
• Darker and Edgier: To both RAC core and Kamen Rider W.
• Deliberately Monochrome: There's a few lines here and there which imply that everything is in black and white. Possibly inspired by The Saboteur or In Famous.
• Depraved Bisexual: Implied with Kenoko. Gets worse when you think about why her Elite Mook cohorts are completely used to it, and why they feel the need to stand and around and watch.
• Face Heel Turn: Kenoko, showing what could have happened if her psyche had unbalanced in the other direction - she ran back to SHOCKER, because they wanted her and Tomoe didn't.
• Fate Worse Than Death: FangOreo end up stuck in the succubus-filled caboose of Django's Liner, with the implication that by this stage they've been broken into what amounts to mindless dolls... making Aelita's message even worse (see Tear Jerker below).
  • Not quite: Word of God calls it a perverse Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. Remember, figurative Horny Devils (written by incorrigible Yuri Fanboys) being uplifted into actual ones and all that.
    • This is something of a case of in-character Your Mileage May Vary, doubling as a Continuity Nod back to Wyll's fear of loss of self-control.
• Film Noir: The first thing you'll notice, obviously.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Kenoko vs. anyone at this stage.
• Mythology Gag: So, so many to Rider Quest and some meta stuff that never got into KRV or RAC:
  • Wyll's weapon of choice is the same model as the too-big-to-use Daiki that Jack toted in Rider Quest.
    • Which causes a rather amusing averted reference to it where Wyll asks if Aelita knows what he likes about it... "Apart from the obvious?" "Actually, pretty much the obvious."
  • Aelita's use of a Five-seveN is a reference to her status in KRV and RAC as The Boss actually just her being French and needing a spiffy European-made semi-automatic answer to Wyll only having five shots to his name at a time.
  • The detective agency takes on the Wyll/Aelita pairing name.
  • Wyll and Aelita being a devastatingly competent tagteam was brought up in KRV (and, in fact, was part of Wyll's plans before he was Put on a Bus), and hinted at briefly in RAC, but here we get to see it at full force.
  • Wyll finds a clue that's in hex - a la the binary and hex messages in Musou Quest.
• No Name Given: The Femme Fatale who walks into the agency.
• Playful Hacker: Aelita, but with the "playful" turned down a long way.
• Private Detective: Wyll and Aelita, obviously. And the trope is played straight with a vengeance.
• Private Eye Monologue: Found in the first episode and on the archive page, and implied to be the lead-in to each episode. Also used as a narrative device to allow Wyll and Aelita to do their own thing in different places while sharing screentime.
• Retool: Somewhat of Rider Quest.
• Ronin: The word is used, but it appears to be Future Slang.
• Ship Tease: For the Pink Lemonade ship.
• Show Some Leg: Aelita to Kenoko to get her Gear back in action. Kenoko never was the sharpest tool in the shed.
• Smoking Is Cool: Wyll's lemongrass habit is back, naturally.
• Tall, Dark and Snarky: Wyll, to go with his Knight in Sour Armor view.
• Tempting Fate: Wyll asks Aelita not to early on, and then realises at the end of the first episode that he did it too.
• Tron Lines: Aelita.
• Word Salad Title: And intentionally, once Axel noted that it felt amusing to say out loud.

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Even after a thorough polishing to remove large swaths of IC natter, the uTOHpia e-splat remains quite tropable as its proprietors take on the nuances of M&M2e along with several oddities from RAC, KRV, and even canon Kamen Rider.

The uTOHpia splat provides examples of

• Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: You be the judge.
• Conversational Troping: Oh my yes.
• Grappling with Grappling Rules: TerminAxel goes out of his way to pinpoint all the right feats to break Grappling.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The splat, while being rooted in Kamen Rider, contains (or will contain) sections dedicated to Ultraman, Metal Heroes, Garo, Super Sentai, Power Rangers, and other more esoteric series, like Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
• Product Placement: Right there on the mainpage... except the "products" are named for ships from the primary game.
• Player Archetypes: Somewhat more foggy, but still quite noticeable. Terminal-slash-Axel is The Real Man and uses a Badass Normal template in Charles Atlas Superpower style (check out his feat setups). Haken is The Loonie and prefers Genius Bruisers running thematic variants of the Flying Brick. Both are The Munchkin of the highest order, but also have a sense of scale about it.
• All the Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary: And gain Special Thanks credits for it too.