TROPES

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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character tropes | setting tropes | story tropes | &c. tropes

CHARACTER TROPES

Adorable Precocious Child: Kristopher when he was younger
Angsty Surviving Twin: Kristopher, sort of (Blue got better/came back as a ghost)
Can't Argue with Elves: Mariel and Lorie both do this and it annoys the hell out of their human family members (Sometimes leads to Screw You, Elves!)
Canine Companion: Kristopher has a PTSD service dog names Patches
Crossover Relatives: Lorie (The Lord of the Rings/The Silmarillion) is Kristopher's (TSUBASA: RESERvoir CHRoNiCLES) dad (adopted) Daddy's Girl: Thea and Tristan
Family of Choice: Mariel is Lorie's niece but, other than that, none of the adults are related to each other by blood and many of the children are adopted (Kristopher and Blue by Lorie, Ari and Benji by Sarah and Mariel)
Giver of Lame Names: Mariel. You're an elven princess from Middle-earth. Why did you name the kid Kristopher?
Half-Identical Twins: T.J. & Thea (Possibly Opposite Sex Clones)
Happily Adopted: Kristopher by Lorie, Ari and Benji by Sarah Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Rose to Lorie
Meaningful Name: Inverted: Kristopher is annoyed that his meaningful rename isn't this
Meaningful Rename: Mariel changed Kristopher's name when he arrived in the rainy city because it's bad luck to have two people with the exact same name
Multigenerational Household: Lorie raised Mariel and Mariel is now helping raise Kristopher (Lorie's son) along with her own children (T.J. and Thea)
"Near and Dear" Baby Naming: T.J. (Tristan James) shares a first name and the first half of a middle name with his dad (Tristan's middle name is Jamieson but that's not why T.J.'s middle name is James)
Nuclear Family: Mariel and Tristan, and their kids Thea and T.J., within the larger multigenerational family living in Mariel's house
Platonic Co-Parenting: Mariel with Lorie (Kristopher) and Sarah (Benji and Ari), though Sarah only sorta counts because they used to be a romantic couple
Real Men Hate Affection: Subverted with all of the men and boys in the family (Lorie, Kristopher, Blue, Tristan, T.J.)
Really 700 Years Old: Mariel and Lorie are The Ageless. Tristan got stuck in his mid-30s. We don't talk about Elouan.
Spoiled Sweet: Thea
Theme Twin Naming: Theadora and T.J. both have names that start with T. Averted with Kristopher and Blue.

SETTING TROPES

Alien Geometries: Mariel's house, but nobody seems bothered by it (See Oh Look, More Rooms)
Alien Sky: At night, the stars form unrecognizable constellations and the aurora writes words in the sky if you know how to read it. During the day, the sky lights up but there's no sun.
Empathetic Environment: The weather improved significantly after Tristan (Mariel's husband) found his way to the city (See Fisher King)
Fisher King: Mariel is the Fisher King of the city (Overlaps with Empathetic Environment)
Oh Look, More Rooms: Mariel's house always looks like a smallish cape house from the outside but has several bedrooms, a study, a large dining room, a living room, and kitchen on the first floor… and an entire second floor (See Alien Geometries)
Portal Crossroads World: The city is a small one
Portal Door: Any door in the city, if you try hard enough. Some are more permanent, like the HVAC door in Mariel's living room that acatually opens into Sarah's apartment in another world.
Void Between the Worlds: Visible at the horizons, don't stick your hand in it (Characters have attempted to fly drones into it but they almost immediately lost contact)

STORY TROPES

Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Characters from Middle-earth, TSUBASA: RESERvoir CHRoNiCLE, &c.
Equivalent Exchange: People who think of the city as "home" lose the color of their eyes. Everyone's eyes are gray.

MISCELLANEOUS TROPES

All There in the Manual: A few poems inspired by my paracosm have been published but those are loosely based on events and characters. All that exists (so far) is this site.
Author Appeal: Literally the entire point of the paracosm
Daydream Believer: I mean… Sword Cane: Mariel's umbrella (It's magic)

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