In a galaxy far, far away, a
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits are scraping by, smuggling not-necessarily-legal things to not-necessarily-legal places, whith an occasional firefight along the way. Then one day, a
Mysterious Waif who alternates between being shy and
kicking much ass drops into their lives...
No, this is
not Firefly. Not even inspired by Firefly (see
author's account
). But there are similiar
Star Wars meets western vibes there.
Enjoy it
here
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Sky is more than able to pull her own weight in everyday operations of the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Yes, weird alien wolves are practically domesticated from the get go. Really.
- Amnesiacs Are Innocent: Sky.
- Artificial Human: Sky and her "sisters" are implied to be such.
- Asteroid Miners: Ril and Roka have a hideout in an abandoned asteroid mine.
- Bandito IN SPACE!: The hilariously inept green guys at the beginning of "The Snow Job".
- Bar Brawl: Averted here
- the brawl gets out to the street pretty quickly.Bar owner: Hey! Who's gonna pay for my window?!
- Barrier Warrior: One frequent use of Bocce's shapeshifting power arm.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: Climax of The Snow Job
- Beware the Nice Ones: Bocce hates, hates Kaagan-Vas. Murderously.
- The Big Guy: Bennesaud, Sky
- Big Damn Heroes: Bocce, using an alien-dog-pulled sled. Which is way cool.
- Binocular Shot: A star-warsy one here

- Boarding Party: Our heroes, when scavenging the Tique Amara. Also tactic favoured by pirates.
- Bookends: The gang's dinner in The Snow Job.
- Bounty Hunter: They exist and are likely to target the gang, so Grissom says.
- Braids, Beads and Buckskins: The Ulon Dosi, native to Ciceron, have very much this sort of esthetic, along with quite a lot of badassitude.
- Casual Interplanetary Travel
- The Captain: Roka
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Cember, Ril and Bennes tease each other, joke and make bets while fighting.
- Cattle Drive: The Snow Job consists of driving Ciceron yak. Ostensibly.
- City Planetoid: Oniaka city station. Vaguely inspired by India.
- Chekhov's Line: Several, in The Snow Job.
- Cloaking Device: Standart pirate trick.
- The Conscience: Bocce, for Roka mostly.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Candy Bandit, natch.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Bocce's lost his father in a pirate raid, Bennes used to work for a dhama, until something was demanded of him that he dissaproved of, a bit of Roka's is shown in his Flashback Nightmare.
- Deflector Shields: On ships (essential in Space Battles) as well as around individuals ("body shells")
- The Don: Called "dhama" in this universe.
- Double Caper: Dhama Hes couldn't have been lying, suave buisinessman that he is, could he?
- Dramatic Gun Cock
- Effortless Amazonian Lift: Silver Sky has no trouble lifting Bocce.
- Escape Pod: Plot point. More than once.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Bennesaud throws a rock.
Ril: You missed!
Bennesaud: I did?
An avalanche ensues
- Exact Words: Forty heads of cattle...
Dhama Hes: Very clever.
- Extended Disarming: Ril
, the Walking Armory - Evil Is Hammy: There is a Black and Grey Morality in effect, but still... Hamron seems starved for the scenery.
- Fan Film: The DAVE School has prodused two animated shorts based off of Bad Goods. One in 2006
, the other in 2015
- Fantastic Drug: Crush. Double duty as a Fantastic Explosive. Going Cold Turkey will kill you gruesomely.
- Fantastic Slurs: "Horn-Beak" is one for Ril's species.
- The Fighting Narcissist: Hamron the Handsome, dreaded pirate and ladies' man.
- Flashback Nightmare: Roka has an understated one, with no dialogue, to drive his Survivor Guilt home.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Brimia crew, besides leukine Bocce and Sky, who doesn't know herself yet, consists of:
- sanguine: Cember: the Candy Bandit and Fun Personified who looks good in firefights
- choleric: Ril: gruff Knife Nut, frustrated over not running the ship, does not think things through, loves guns as much as he loves knives, bit of a Troll
- melancholic: Roka: very smart, analitical and serious, responsible, levelheaded captain with hints of Stepford Snarker
- phlegmatic: Bennesaud: Gentle Giant, Submissive Badass (to an extent), quiet and reliable, smart, but not bragging about it, relaxes by reading
- Game-Breaking Injury: Suffered by Bocce in Damaged Goods, carries over to The Snow Job because healing technology is expensive.
- The Gunslinger: Cember. Ril, while quite Trigger Happy, just doesn't have the flair.
- Hand Cannon: Averted for Bennesaud, whose usual guns are tiny (in proportion to him).
- The Heart: Bocce
- Heel Realization: Roka actively avoids having one. He tells Bocce so after the gang finds clues of Super Human Trafficking they might be committing.
Roka: It's not our job to know.
- Honest John's Dealership: Dealing in ships on Oniaka, we give you the anglefishman. Basically Stan IN SPACE!.
- Humanoid Aliens: Many flavours, one with vestigial radial symmetry. Bocce could pass for human (if not for the arm, but it's not a trait of his species). Sky is a Blue-Skinned Space Babe.
- Identity Amnesia: Sky. If she has anything to remember...
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten: Baso's initiation into Kaagan-Vas consists of killing his own father and sister. He has absolutely no problem with that.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Cember can shoot through a fingertip-sized opening. Improbable in-universe.
- Inertial Dampening: Trumped by Rule of Funny, otherwise played straight.
- Intimidation Demonstration: Pacifies Ril
. Makes Roka grumble about how much forks cost. - Ironic Echo Cut: Happens every now and again.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Ril in The Snow Job:
Ril: THAT'S IT! I can't DO this!! I can't believe we TOOK the beetles!
Roka: What was I SUPPOSED to do, Ril?! They couldn't PAY us!
Ril: We can't LIVE like this, Roka!!
- Kill It with Fire: Flamethrowers are used in The Snow Job, to deadly effect.
- Knowledge Broker: Dhama Hes believes knowledge is power.
- Last-Name Basis: Ril only ever refers to Cember as "Cember" once. Every other time it's "Kogi".
- Lured into a Trap: The gang, having missed the significance of the Chekhov's Gun a couple of pages earlier, walks right into this one
... Oh, Crap! - MacGuffin Super Person: An entire shipload of possible Human Weapons...
- Mexican Standoff: How we meet Grissom.
- Mistaken for Junkie: While Keyla needs crush for research (on curing addicts), her father forms conclusions of his own.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: Harmon. It would be sad, if it wasn't so hilarious.
Harmon: My beautiful face!
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Silver Sky. Also quite strong.
- Off Bridge, onto Vehicle: In the Damaged Goods. Less than graceful, but at least no-one got hurt.
- Old Friend: Grissom, to Ril and Roka.
- Only in It for the Money: Why Roka is in the business.
- Opium Den: The ruined village of Ulon Dosi (ruination in this case caused by most of the population being addicted to crush).
- Perpetual Poverty: Money's tight for Brimia crew. This is a source of tension.
- Power Fist: Bocce has some sort of blue energy arm. That shapeshifts. Very handy.
- Retired Outlaw: Grissom, at least for now.
- Reduced to Root Beetles: In The Snow Job. But they're actually quite good, unless Cember's tastes are that odd.
- Revenge Before Reason: Harmon has an issue to set with the Brimia crew. Also, if you're Kaagan-Vas, keep as far away from Bocce as possible.
- The Rustler: On Ciceron. The gang is supposed to rustle a herd of cattle back from them.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Not their fight
. - Shout-Out: Flying out of Oniaka. Millenium Falcon, anyone?
- Snowball Fight: The crew play a bit upon arrival on Ciceron, where it's very snowy.
- Snow Means Death: Frozen-to-death guy on Ciceron.
- Space Clothes: Refreshingly averted for everyone except Sky, the one person able to pull modest Future Spandex off.
- Space Elves: The Jondhi seem to be Hidden Elf Village kind of people.
- Space Fighter: Ships like Khorusya Brimia have one or two "Mosquitos" for discrete landings and dogfights.
- Space Police: In Jondhi space (Space Navy? Space Coast Guard?)
- Space Pirates: At least two distinct groups, Harmon's one comes complete with a Boarding Party as their favoured tactic. The Kaagan-Vas seem to be Always Chaotic Evil.
- Stab the Salad: In their very first scene, Cember's fully intending to kick Roka's ass in a cardgame.
- Standard Starship Scuffle: Khorusya Brimia vs. Space Pirates, with dogfighting and star-warsy Explosions in Space
- Street Smart: None of the crew is exactly dumb: Roka and Bennes are tacticians, Ril gets to play the mechanic, Bocce got into the crew because he thinks on his feet, and Cember's a good shot and experienced in fights.
- Superpowered Blood Knight Side: Silver Sky
- Super Soldier: The blue-silver girls, most probably.
- The Syndicate: The Six Tal'Dhamas organize the crime in this universe.
- Those Two Guys: Cember and Bennesaud, best pals since having been on the same pirate crew.
- Token Human: Bocce (or Human Alien, since there seems to be no Earth around).
- Used Future
- Wretched Hive: The ironically named Free Kespa.