Waterworks

Waterworks is an Interactive Comic, created by LuFa as a MSPA Forum Adventure; apart from normal and animated panels, it also makes use of Flash animations accompanied by music, Homestuck-style.

It follows the adventures of Connie Cohen, a "concerned citizen" who arrives at the local waterworks to investigate the mysterious lack of water in her household. As it turns out, the facility has been taken over by a gang of thugs who apparently wish to steal the water for reasons unknown, and it is up to Connie to stop them. And, of course, then it turns out that there is far more at stake than that...

Combat and action abound throughout.

It can be read here.

Tropes used in Waterworks include:

• Abandoned Area: Derelix. Actually another planet.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The thugs are blue. Well, Slick is white, and only his suit is blue.

Connie: So, why are you guys all blue?
Slick: THAT'S RACIST

• An Axe to Grind: Acquired from a can of Axe deodorant.
• Badass Cape: Acquired by Connie later on.
  • Cape Swish
• Badass Moustache: Tubs.
• Battle Discretion Shot: This page, complete with the entire image shaking.
• Berserk Button: Connie goes for an off-screen Extreme Melee Revenge after being splashed with what she thinks could be toilet water.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Tubs. "Tub's brow is too furrowed for the mace to get into his eyes!"
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Everyone in Slick/Rheo Wasser's underground civillization get four of these, on the arms and legs, at birth and are supposed to care for them until the end of their life.
• Bold Inflation: Pretty much every other word is bolded! Only in the original forum thread though; the mirror eschews all of this boldage.
• Brick Joke: The worker who "Spins on his head like a Hitmontop."
• Bridal Carry: Slick carries Connie this way when they're heading to the elevator.
• Bucket Helmet: Kitchen pot.
• By Wall That Is Holey: Slick's repair module.
• Carry a Big Stick: A mace (transformed from a CAN OF MACE).
• Chandler's Law: The plot stalls... suddenly, forklift mecha crashing through the door! Followed by Tubs.. ^{[dead link]}
• Crowd Panic: This page. Though it's more of a mass jawdrop.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The factory employees are referred to simply by their job titles. Connie herself is just a "concerned citizen" and doesn't get named until a few hundred pages in.
• The Faceless: Slick, except in his expository flashback.
• Flat What: Wat. (In reaction to this.)
• Gag Echo: "that's new" -- When Slick and Connie each see the black goo "tree" for the first time.
• Genius Bruiser: Typhoon, apparently.
• GIS Syndrome: Most of the inventory items, as well as the backgrounds in José's Flash Back.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Connie gets angry rather easily... usually with destructive results; as it turns out, this is pretty much the main reason she has barely any friends, let alone a boyfriend.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: The mood ring, where each specific mood is a separate inventory slot that can only be accessed when Connie is in that mood. A source of much frustration.
• Improvised Weapon: A laser pointer.
• Informed Deformity: Mist. Supposedly incredibly ugly, but, as Connie lampshades, by media standards she's hot. However, it is apparently mostly because of the deformity affecting her wrist/ankle blades.
• Innocent Bystanders: The waterworks workers. At least initially.
• Instant Costume Change: "Oh yeah. Now you're a hero."
• Jet Pack: José can use his water hose (made of a toilet tank) as a primitive jetpack.
• Knife Nut: Flush.
  • Subverted in that despite liking knives, he has 'no clue what to do with one in a fight.
• Mistaken Nationality: José hates being called "French".
• Most Common Superpower: Connie. And Mist.
• Must Make Amends: Connie needs to fix the situation once she destroys the fish whose smell was the only thing keeping the workers safe from Tubs.
• Neat Freak: Connie's fear of dirty toilets.
• The Noseless: The art style makes everyone into this.
• Perpetual Frowner: Mist.
• The Place
• Portal Pool: The Spatial Transport ability of Slick's suit allows Slick to use any puddle as a portal to any other puddle. Spatial Transport II is this for any body of water.
• Powered Armor: Slick's suit. Has a lot of funky features.
  • X-Ray Vision: One of the abilities offered by it. Though it requires the suit to release x-rays which are harmful to living beings in the vicinity.
• Present Tense Narrative: Except for Slick's backstory exposition break.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Flush gets these as soon as he boots up his Cyclone Cistern.
• Save the Villain: Connie, towards José.
• Second Person Narration
• Shout-Out: Urist McWorkman is one walking Dwarf Fortress reference.
  • Also, there's the aforementioned "Hitmontop" worker. In addition to spinning around on his head, he attempts to use triple-kick on Slick. Later, Slick is told to "mash the B button" to stop one of the goo creatures from evolving.
  • The sisters Philia and Phobia are two overall & cap wearing plumber siblings, one red and one green. There's also one to Super Mario Sunshine when Connie asks José if he's going to use his pack to fly around collecting blue coins.
• Spin Attack: Flush's Cyclone Cistern ability. It gets truly spectacular.
• Split-Screen Phone Call: Between Urist and the supervisor.
• Street Urchin: José, in his youth.
• Super Strength: Tubs seems to border on this, at least.
• Sweat Drop: Here.
• Ultraterrestrials: Slick/Rheo's civilization.
• Talking Weapon: The axe. Despite it's ominous red glow, it just wants to cut down trees.
• Theme Naming:
  • Slick, Flush, Tubs, and José (Hose) all have a plumbing theme.
  • Philia and Phobia, the heavy plumber sisters.
• Unstoppable Rage: Connie... Has anger issues.
• Wham! Episode: Derelix and the revelation that the black goo is some sort of organism.
• What's a Henway?: The "updog" variety (warning: spoiler link.)
• Who Forgot the Lights?: A rare non-video game example. Whenever there's something happening in the underground, you really should turn your monitor's brightness up to the max if you want to be able to tell what's going on.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Tubs' Weaksauce Weakness is the smell of cheap fish.
  • Connie is pretty germ-phobic, specifically in relation to toilets, and will freak out at the drop of a hat about them.
• Wingding Eyes: "he can't be dead! his eyes aren't X's!"