Carpe Tropes

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Even roleplays have their tropes. However, Tropes Are Not Bad, and so we thought we'd have a little bit of Fun with some Carpe Tropes.

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Tropes

General Game

• Applied Phlebotinum
  • Applied very generously pretty much everywhere, with regards to explaining the Mansion's effect on death, the plothole, the mantion rebuilding itself, the wacky time thingie (see below).
• Anyone Can Die
  • No, really, because the typist has to agree. But this is made easier by the fact that Death Is Not Permanent, that it is also often a Slap On The Wrist, and that it comes pretty Cheap. So they keep on coming Back From the Dead.
• Brought Down to Normal:
  • Not EXACTLY true, but the Mansion does tend to hamper magic, make technology inoperative, and make things fizzle out on characters.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • Averted in that recognition is allowed at the player's discretion, but fourth-walling is not.
• Last Bastion
  • <pashchan I love it when Carpe is active as hell…
  • <@Wil> SORRY FOR FLOODING THE FLIST, MAN
  • <pashchan> IT'S COOL.
  • <MatrixRefugee> It's rather exciting! It's like… every time I refresh the f-list, there's a new post!
  • <pashchan> *Sometimes think we are the last active RP game in LJ*
  • <Louisa> hee XD
  • <pashchan> SO WE ARE SPECIAL.
  • <@Wil> THE LAST BASTION OF LJR{
  • <@Wil> LJRP
  • <@Wil> …. well, that was anticlimactic
  • <pashchan> WE AIN'T NO PUNK-ASS PLAYERS THAT JUMP SHIP.
  • <@Wil> NO WE JUST SHIP, WITHOUT THE JUMPING
  • <pashchan> AGREED.
  • <MatrixRefugee> THIS!
  • <pashchan> We're like the captains on a slowly sinking boat.
  • <@Wil> *salutes!*
  • <pashchan> Our pups are the band. :|
• Loads And Loads of Characters:
  • We have no clue what you're talking about. We also have no idea what Loads and Loads of Roles means. NONE. WHATSOVER.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor:
  • Obviously. Some of us play jerks and a-holes, but we're all nice people. Seriously.
• NPC:
  • Draugluin and friends are this, as is Morgoth (even though only one mod can bear to write him.)
• Play By Post Game:
  • Carpe Horas is essentially this. Except it's also Journal Roleplay. It also happens to be a Mega Crossover. Duh.
• STD Immunity:
  • Subverted in that it happens only if canon for the character. There are doctors in the house who actually worry about this, and senior characters who promote condoms to the younger ones.
• Summon Everyman Hero:
  • We have this going on, with characters in play ranging from gods, to ordinary kids.
• Talking to Himself:
  • Generally avoided by players who invite a friend to play a third party, so they'll avoid headcest.
• The Wiki Rule: DUH.

The Location

• Arcadia
  • True to a certain degree - though the quiet life in the country tends to get troubled, when the Big Bad sets his mind to it.
• The Bermuda Triangle
  • Because that's how several Mansioners got here. Many characters have tried to understand their physical location. This is made worse by the fact that some died and other did not, and some are fictional to others. The only logical conclusion is that this is a Fantasy Kitchen Sink located in a Void Between the Worlds.
• Bedlam House
  • Whenever there's a crackplot. The Mansion is also this to most puppets when they first arrive. Might also be said of the typist, and of chat, on a busy night.
• Big Fancy House
  • The Mansion is this. To the point that you'll NEVER find a house with more rooms than the Mansion. Ever. It's also Bigger On The Inside and has aspects of the Big Labyrinthine Building. One might wonder whether it's an Eldritch location or not…
• Closed Circle:
  • Just don't try to leave, not gonna happen. Unless your typist drops you.
• Hidden Elf Village
  • Not exactly a village, but there are Elven buildings (a treehouse, two forges and a greenhouse) which are on the grounds, but hidden, and difficult to find for the uninitiated.
• The Lost Woods
  • The forest around the mansion is this. Except Everything Is Worst With Wolves.
• Narnia Time
  • Is often used to reassure puppets that they haven't been messed up with time and created a Temporal Paradox or are headed towards a Time Crash. But just in general, we eventually all come to accept that we're dealing with a TimeyWimeyBall, though some craftier folk do manage to Trick Out Time, or think they do, and are likely experiencing Mind Screw.
• This Isn't Heaven
  • Maybe, for those who came post-death, the Mansion will be a positive afterlife. They might be having a Hell of a Time during crackplots. Or maybe the Mansion will be an Infernal Paradise to them, or a Hell of a Heaven.
• Translator Microbes:
  • Damn right. The Mansion is a universal translator, with some exceptions. See FAQ.

The People

• Adaptational Attractiveness
  • Due to issues with casting various puppets PB's realistically, (or just for lulz) many of them turn out more conventionally attractive than shown in canon. Examples include Brienne, Stark, and most recently, The Warden. Blame the entertainment industry.
• Anachronism Stew
  • Most visible in pairings, such as Caliban (20th century) and Sugar (19th), or Guinevere (middle-ages) and Sam (21st century) but is generally true of the whole population as well, with people ranging from the middle-ages to post-apocalyptic futures.
• Beast And Beauty
  • Muraki and Helen. (Played straight), Phedre and Sandor(Played straight), Brienneand Stark (subverted, in that Beauty is only an ironic nickname for Brienne.)
• Big Bad
  • There is one in play (Melkor), who is used by the Hive Mind as a plot device. He is sometimes responsible for bad things happening, but sometimes he isn't. He gets blamed for all of it regardless.
• Break The Cutie
  • Louisa is known for doing this, most regularly with Iphigenia, though she is now cackling as she is about to break Wendla. She also has Sansa Stark, who is pretty much the definition of the Trope. Wil has also done this, several times over, to Angelique, most recently, in the quake (where other cuties, such as Sophie, Aredhel and her daughters were also broken).
• Close Knit Community
  • Eventually, it does get that way. It's inevitable.
• Even the Guys Want Him
  • Has been said, several times, of Neville Longbottom, most notably by Dean Winchester's typist. It's a known fact: Everyone Is Gay For Neville.
• Everyone Is Gay / Everyone Is Bi
  • Averted in that the Mansion hosts a vast array of sexual orientations and canon orientations are respected at Carpe (with some artistic license in cases where Your Mileage May Vary). See below, Het is Hew.
• Extreme Omnisexual
  • Most notably, Jack Harkness, who actually is on the page. Not to be confused with the Love Dodecahedron/Marry Them All, see below. Closely related to, but more extreme than those who Really Get Around, and who are an Ethical Slut, like Robin Goodfellow.
• Het is Ew
  • Completely subverted in that there are many heterosexual pairings in play, some of them canon. Averted most notably by Tolkien elves, who are all canonically monogamous, straight (being Elfeminate does not gay one make), and mate for life (though some matings are discounted, right, Eol?) Because subverting gender roles has nothing to do with sexual orientation. And of course, Our Elves Are Better. Ha.
• Insecure Love Interest
  • Many pairings start off like this. Some resolve it along the way, others don't.
• Interspecies Romance
  • Most visibly, Benjen (human) and Asato (ribika), along with Celebrimbor (elf) and Pandora (vampire), Anita Blake (human turned monster) and Lucivar Yaslana (Eyren), any pairing involving the puck. There are likely many others - or were, at one point or another.
• Love at First Punch
  • Fairly common in the game. Brienneand Stark are an example of this, in Stark's case, quoth his typist.
• Love Dodecahedron
  • Several characters are involved, or find themselves at the nexus of such things, much to their typist's facepalming. Most notable examples are Anita, Phedre, Muraki, Aramat and Hisoka. Though in some cases it may be a case of Marry Them All (cough cough, Phedre, Muraki, and Anita.) Not that there's anything wrong with Polyamory.
• True Companions:
  • Characters seem to be grouping into affinity groups. Examples: there are Finweans who tend to keep to themselves (particularly Feanorians), The Pack (includes Anita, TJ, Daniel, Lukas, Billy and Tony), the Shadow Angels (includes, but is not limited to, Utena, Hisoka, Tsuzuki, Genkai), and the Orkneys (Gawain, Melou, Medraut, Agravainand Gigalain). The basement rock band Death and the Maiden also counts as this (Johnny, Ryuk, Natalie).
• Your Universe of Mine
  • True of many pairings, mostly crack - to the exception of a few Fandom Official Couples, ( Ned and Catelyn Stark, Feanor and Nerdanel) and a Fan Preferred Couple (Celegormand Aredhel) who are also a bad case of Star Crossed Lovers. Closely related, many pairings are cases of Love Transcends Spacetime.

The Events

• Large Ham:
  • Several characters may be this - and it is made visible every year, in the Mansion Home Theater.
• Naive Newcomer:
  • Probably true of most introduction posts in which the new arrival is a Vanilla Human. They generally end up seriously wanting to know What Is Going On. It's also a case of Easing Into The Adventure, much to the puppet's chagrin.
• A Party Also Known as an Orgy:
  • Happens on occasion, but is very often averted or subverted, in that minglers are generally occasions to socialize, when they aren't serious plot events.
• Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies:
  • Happened most notably when the Mansion fell over, as a way to explain a massive drop caused by OOC happenings. Massive death plots happen occasionally at the Mansion. They are always inevitably the result of Morgoth's scheming.
• A Wizard Did it:
  • Is often the accepted explanation for magic at the Mansion, particularly the wilder crackplots, made worse by the fact that there is an abundance of magic users about, and that the Mansion itself is a pocket of Wild Magic. Sometimes, a wizard did actually do it.