Secret Project

From Tai List

"Partners" is a Speculative Fiction story by artist Norithics, about teen superheroes in an idealised future setting of the year 2541. Oh, and they're all (or almost all) furries. Currently two volumes have been completed, with a third planned.

Tropes appearing in Partners:

• Aerith and Bob: Even the inkling's names aside, there are common names like Natalie, Carrie, and Samantha alongside more unusual names like Alliston, Coul, and Grendolyn. They're close enough to current names that it suggests this is a form of Language Drift.
• Affectionate Nickname: Carrie's for Nat is "Sugarbutt", Nat's for Carrie is "Boobiecakes"
• Alien Invasion: The conflict of Volume 1
• Amicable Exes: Max and Svenson, after a fashion. Turns out Svenson broke it off because he didn't want to change Max.
• Animal Species Accent: Not normally, but it is briefly noted Gren's goat accent slips out occasionally.
• Animal Superheroes: Essentially what the main cast becomes.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Kei's inkling power lets him do this
• Another Dimension: Canvas, the world where the inklings come from
• Arch-Enemy: Natalie and Cedric treat each other like this, though exactly how serious on either side it is can vary. The conflict between Echelon and Emnas only exacerbates it.
  • Cap'n Comet's is Dr. Nhilus, and it says something that Jacent is still dealing with the mad doctor's legacies 500 years later.
• An Arm and a Leg: Sam loses a leg to one of the monsters early on, replacing it with a prosthetic one.
  • In volume 2, Nat sacrifices her arms in the climax to defeat Grendel.
• Artificial Animal People: This is humanity's advancement in the Partners world. All humans have become anthropomorphic animals, though they still consider themselves humans first. The "artifical" part comes in in that they didn't achieve this through natural evolution, but to save them from a plague.
• Artificial Limbs: Sam gains a prosthetic leg after losing hers to a monster. This opens her mind to the positive aspects of transhumanism.
  • Natalie gains them after Volume 2, after sacrificing her arms to defeat Grendel. It's noted this is an unusual case, as whatever she did seems to have interfered with her ability to regenerate her arms naturally.
• Attack Pattern Alpha: Nat and Cat have been doing their bully-hunter thing for long enough that they've developed pre-rehearsed manuevres with fancy names.
• Author Appeal: The author is well known for his fondness for ample posteriors, as seen on Nat and her mother. Also, '80s/'90s pop culture. Despite taking place 500 years in the future, references to things like Super Nintendo and the Ninja Turtles keep being made (usually by the handful of characters who once lived back then).
• Awesome McCoolname: Jacent Danger could almost be a superhero name itself.
  • Also, Max Tangent's full name isn't Maximilian or Maxwell. It's Maximum.
• Ax-Crazy: Grendel exists only to fight, kill, and destroy. And she revels in it.
• Bad Ol' Badger: Cedric Onyx, local bully and rival to Natalie and her pack.
• Beach Episode: Despite being more of an underwater city with a water park, the visit to Anchorsway probably counts thematically.
• Big Bad: For Volume 1, it's Osoth, leader of the invading forces
  • Volume 2 has a wider variety of opponents, but it ultimately ends up being Grendel, killer robot from Jacent's rogues' gallery
• A Birthday, Not a Break: It's Max's birthday! Everyone's out in Anchorsway to have a good time--and then Khurl shows up threatening a terrorist attack.
• Blob Monster: The inklings are a fluidic race, somewhat similar to the symbiotes in Spider-Man.
  • Also the "grabber" line of monsters. They're basically big piles of green goo with a single eyeball. Max's pet, Gropey, is a juvenile one.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Carrie's already a decent fighter, but starts learning wrestling in Volume 2 to better compliment her invulnerability powers.
• Brain Uploading: The fate of humanity in the alternate timeline where the Sandbox technology saves everyone instead of the splice. Gren, Ten, and Shelly experience this for themselves when visiting this universe.
• Breast Expansion: There's a whole section of Volume 2 where Natalie borrows Lastik's powers to play with this.
• The Bully: Cedric is your archetypical example
• Bully Hunter: How Nat and Carrie start the story, usually with Cedric as the bully in question
• Buxom Is Better: Natalie thinks so, and her girlfriend Carrie has quite a set to prove her right
• Can't Stay Normal: The cast at the beginning of Volume 2. Nat in particular revels in the chance to return to her superhero life.
• Canon Immigrant: Several characters in Volume 2 originate as fan characters
• The Cape: Captain Comet/Jacent Danger is very much the archetypical superhero
• Captain Superhero: Natalie's favourite, Cap'n Comet (AKA Jacent Danger).
• Character-Magnetic Team: Nat's pack is double what it was by the end of Volume 2.
• Chest Insignia: Most of Cap'n Comet's costumes have one, usually a comet arching in a C shape.
• Christmas Episode: The "Homeshare Spirit" epilogue serves as one of these
• Cloudcuckoolander: Max comes across as this, and even his close friends admit they don't always understand what comes out of his mouth.
• Color-Coded For Your Convenience: Each of the Elite inklings comes in a different colour to identify them. Just among the main heroes in the first volume, Echelon is black and pink, Arus is white, Mhend is pink, Phactys is tan, and Koralo is green.
• Convection Schmonvection: While Emnas' lava abilities are quite powerful, they're not quite as lethal as they should be.
• Covered with Scars: Jacent has quite a few, souvenirs of his rough life as a superhero
• Creepy Blue Eyes: Grendel's eyes are compared to a gas flame, and it's one of the many unsettling things about her.
  • Jasmine is not an example of this, though she was picked on in her youth for being perceived this way (blue eyes are unusual for a Chinese girl).
• Data Pad: The PET essentially boils down to this. The replacement for both personal computers and cellphones in the future, they're highly customisable and capable of a variety of functions.
• Diagnosis of God: While not stated directly in the text, Shelly is likely autistic, given her difficulty in understanding social cues and certain jokes (such as sarcasm).
• Disappeared Dad: Natalie's father died some years before the start of the story
• Domed Hometown: Locksmouth and the other major population centers each exist under a dome, each with their own controllable weather patterns.
• The Dragon: Back in Jacent's time, Grendel was this to Dr. Nhilus. In modern times, she's become a Dragon Ascendant big bad of her own.
• Eternal English: Jacent doesn't have any trouble understanding anyone 500 years in the future, at least as far as spoken words go.
• Everybody Has Lots of Sex: This is actually a fundamental aspect of post-splice society. Sex doesn't have its taboos or stigmas, and casual sex among friends is essentially seen as just another way to express affection and show someone you care about them. Most packs, especially teenagers, practice outercourse, or "OC", a type of clothed sex done via projections from their understickers. Jacent, being from 500 years ago, is often caught off-guard by these casual attitudes.
• Everyone is Bi: And they don't think another thing about it. Identifying terms like "lesbian" no longer even exist. To post-splice humans, it's weirder that they have to explain this to Jacent.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Volume 1 takes place over roughly four days or so.
• Family of Choice: A major theme of the work, but also in general what the pack dynamic essentially boils down to
• The Fashionista: Samantha is noted for this, to the point that her friends often go to her for it.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Jacent's troubles usually come from him being this, still set in older ways of thinking. He's at least open-minded about it.
• Flintstone Theming: The various art-related terms that come with the inklings' abilities: Canvas (their homeworld), The Inked (people who are sharing a bond with an inkling), shading (those using an inkling's higher powers), Flood Fill (a power that protects an area by tapping into Osoth's lingering essence), the list goes on...
• Fluffy Tamer: Sam ends up befriending the huge spout dragon, Nozzle, once it's free of Osoth's control.
  • Max also defeats a grabber, reducing it to a tiny blob, and adopts it.
• Flying Car: Maybe closer to hover cars, but they're close enough
• Free-Love Future: Played with. Romantic couples are still common, but additionally, post-splice humans will frequently engage in various activities together without batting an eye at it. It's seen as normal to experiment with each other, especially with in a pack.
• Friends with Benefits: Part and parcel to being in a pack. OC among friends is just natural bonding activities.
• Future Spandex: Largely averted, most of the teen characters wear clothes readers would recognise as contemporary. It's noted, however, this was a popular fashion choice in their parents' generation, by the name of Star Fantasia. Jacent finds it appealing, mortifying fashion-conscious Sam.
  • The understickers the characters wear for undergarments, however, are definitely this.
• The Future Will Be Better: The main focus of the story. The year of 2541 isn't without its problems, but most major diseases have been cured, war has been abolished, and food and energy scarcity have been solved. Depsite being animal hybrids and on a population downswing, humanity is finally equal and treat each other as such. Jacent, despite occasionally feeling out of place, seems to view the world 500 years later as an improvement.
• Genius Ditz: Shelly's a bit vapid and has difficulty reading social cues. She's also scarily good at science.
• Hair-Raising Hare: Sarissa, particularly when she shapeshifts into her monster form
• Halloween Episode: One chapter in Volume 2 serves as this.
• Healing Hands: Sam's inkling powers from Mhend (though it actually first manifests as a kiss)
• Heroic Host: The inklings bond with their hosts and give them powers.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Jasmine tries to pull one at the climax of Volume 2, but Natalie decides to Take a Third Option.
• Hologram: A major piece of tech in the future, used for all sorts of things. Jacent notably dislikes them, and avoids using them in home decorating.
• Hoverboard: The grav-skiff technology. In addition to shoes, it does apply to common hoverboad-like devices.
• Human Popsicle: How Jacent ends up in the future.
• I Work Alone: Jacent's attitude in the past, due to the dangerous life as a superhero. Part of his character development is shedding this attitude and coming to accept his new friends.
• An Ice Person: Alliston's inkling powers from Floe
• In the Future, We Still Have Roombas: The Auto-Maid robots
• Instant Sedation: Sam eventually learns to use Mhend's powers like this, based on an applied anasthetic
• Intergenerational Friendship: Not a significant gap, but Gren and Ten are much younger than the rest of Natalie's pack.
• Invisibility: Coul's inkling powers from Vissage
• Jumped at the Call: Nat, a lifelong fan of superheroics, jumps at the chance to become one herself.
• Kid Hero: The main cast are all in their teens or younger. Jacent in particular started out as Kid Comet at a younger age.
• Killer Robot: Grendel
• Killer Yo-Yo: Jacent's weapon of choice. Despite the trope name, the intent is actually to reduce the lethality of his attacks.
• Kitschy Themed Restaurant: Shakers: The Dairy Bar. Jacent likens it to something akin to Hooters, but the cow-print uniforms are actually less skimpy (though still extremely form-fitting).
• La Résistance: Echelon's group of inklings is this against Osoth's forces. Emnas' group is essentially a rival faction opposing both Osoth and Echelon.
• Life Energy: The reasons why inklings need a host is that they're powered by an emotional output called "prana", and can't hold themselves together outside of Canvas without a direct link to it. If the host is willing and provides positive energy, it doesn't hurt them and also makes the inkling stronger as well.
• Like Is, Like, A Comma: Frequent in Shelly's speech patterns
• Living Relic: Jacent is the last surviving pre-splice human
• Local Hangout: Usually the Burger Dictator
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Nhilus, Cap'n Comet's arch enemy. There are actually a number of these in his rogues' gallery.
  • Natalie jokingly refers to her mother as one
• Making a Splash: Khurl's inkling powers
• Magma Man: Cedric's inkling powers from Emnas
• Magic Kiss: Mhend's healing powers first manifest this way, but later become more broadly applicable
• Malicious Misnaming: Carrie still gets called "Scary Carrie", an old schoolyard taunt, by those trying to rile her up
• Mecha-Mooks: Dr. Nhilus had many Nhiloids in his employ
• Mega Twintails: Carrie's hairstyle is best described as two enormous corkscrew spirals hanging from the back of her head.
• Mind Control: Osoth's inkling powers, and how she rules her subjects
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The "crawler" line of monsters are hexapodal.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Carrie's inkling powers from Arus
• No-Paper Future: There is paper, but it's rare to see, and several characters note any use as very old. No modern characters use it.
• Noble Wolf: Natalie Grayswift. A loyal and caring friend who aspires to heroic deeds.
• Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Locksmouth was a fairly ordinary town in the year 2541, especially if you asked Natalie Grayswift. It just happened to be attacked by aliens from another dimension one day.
• Official Couple: Several throughout the series
  • Nat and Carrie, already together at the start of the series
  • Jacent and Sam undergo a Relationship Upgrade and start dating, even in spite of Jacent's older ways of thinking
  • Erwin and Kei likewise eventually get together in Volume 2
• Ordinary High-School Student: The main cast at the start of the series
• Our Monsters Are Weird: The various monsters encountered throughout the story. Justified in that they're aliens from other worlds being used as shock troops.
• A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: Alliston fashions herself this way, down to the accent, for whatever reason.
• Post-Scarcity Economy: By 2541, the hunger and energy crises have been solved, and nearly anything can be recycled.
• Power Copying: Nat's inking power from Echelon. It requires her to have contact with the DNA of the other person whose powers she wants to use, usually accomplished with a lock of hair, and she can only use one powerset at a time.
• The Power of Friendship: So far, this seems to be what powers an inkling's higher abilities.
• Psychic Powers: What Jacent's Comet Powers essentially boil down to being
  • His sister Jasmine has them as well. And it turns out, so do a handful of post-splice humans.
• Punny Name: Several of the inklings, often overlapping with Meaningful Name. For example, Lastik has stretching powers, Floe has ice powers.
• Ragtag Band of Misfits: The main cast. A group of teenagers who became friends because they had no one else, who end up saving the world.
• Reconstruction: For the superhero genre. The story was written specifically in response to dour, darker superhero works that were common at the time.
• Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: All the inklings in Echelon's resistance group end up bonding with a bunch of kids.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Empress Osoth
• Reflective Teleportation: A power the inklings have. They can move to Canvas and back through mirrors, and writing on the mirrors allows them to move to a specific destination.
• Revealing Continuity Lapse: How Natalie escapes from Dreamless Urgai's illusion in Volume 1. The illusion is constructed from her thoughts and memories--but she didn't actually witness her father's death. She merely imagined it so vividly out of guilt. When these images are treated as fact, Nat picks up on this.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Several, but Widget takes the cake.
  • Jasmine eventually becomes one as well.
• Robot War: The (eventual) conflict of Volume 2
• Rogues' Gallery: As a superhero, Jacent had one. Several of them are mentioned, including Dr. Nhilus (and Grendel), Tunnel Vision, and the Spidress.
  • Volume 2 seems to be intent on setting one of these up for Nat, adding encounters with Sarissa, Khurl, and Leihanne alongside Cedric.
• Rubber Man: Shelly's inkling powers from Lastik
• Security Blanket: Natalie's childhood toy, a stuffed octopus named Mr. Squiggle
• Seers: Essentially what Erwin's inkling powers from Phactys make him
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Late in Volume 2, the heroes jump to parallel worlds, where things didn't play out the same. Each group has to fix the problems before they can return to their rightful universe.
• Shapeshifting: Sarissa has this power
• Shock and Awe: Gren and Ten's shared inkling power from Voltaus
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Jacent Danger
• Space Station: The Ring, an enormous orbiting space station in a ring shape around the planet.
• Sticky Situation: Max's inkling powers from Koralo
• Stuffed into a Locker: Cedric (actually Sarissa in disguise) does this to Bo early in Volume 2, setting off the poor girl's claustrophobia
• Super Speed: Blane's inkling gave him this power--for a little while
• Synthetic Plague: The Skin Plague that wiped out pre-splice humanity
• Take a Third Option: Grendel is about to explode and eliminate all life, and only Jasmine can stop her, sacrificing herself to do so. Instead, Natalie latches on to Waymaker Pathos' powers and puts Grendel in another dimension, one already devoid of life. It costs her her arms, but not her new friend.
• Token Human: Of a sort. They're all humans, but Jacent is the only pre-splice human while the rest resemble anthropomorphic animals.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Natalie's is bagels, Carrie's is cake.
• Underground City: Turns out there's one populated by robots under Locksmouth.
• Untrusting Community: Although initially shaky, it's actually not the people of Locksmouth in this trope. No, it's the Greys, the unpowered civilians of the inkling race. They're deeply mistrustful that their saviors won't just turn on them and become another Osoth.
• Values Dissonance: In-universe, Jacent, whose values are from 500 years ago, gets hit with this a lot (usually in matters of sex and sexuality), often for comedy and sometimes drama. To his credit, he realises he's the one who has to be more open-minded and try to change, as society has moved on beyond his values--and the truly important values, like protecting others and being kind, are still there.
• Visual Pun: Shelly's a bubbly insect girl who throws a lot of parties. She's a social butterfly.
• Walking Techbane: Leihanne Veviroux
• The Watson: Jacent is often used as an audience surrogate, since he's been asleep for 500 years and needs basic history and concepts explained to him
• We Will Have Perfect Health in the Future: It's noted there are still the occasional colds, but the major diseases have been eliminated, and post-splice humans have longer lifespans and even regenerative healing abilities.
• Weather-Control Machine: Each domed city has one. The one in Locksmouth fails, and getting it up and running again is one of the major plot beats of Volume 1.
• Wonder Twin Powers: Gren and Ten need to work together to use their shared inkling abilities.
• You Mean "Xmas": In the Partners future, it's Homeshare. The main focus is on the togetherness of the holiday, with a simplified gift-giving aspect. Gifts are bought individually, then anonymously given from the members of a pack, so nobody is left out or has to feel pressured to buy for everyone.