BlankEarth/Tropes

## General

**The '90s** - While not set in the nineties, Blank Earth takes place in an alternate universe that had been affected by a depression-level economic crash in the early naughts that technologically and culturally stagnated life for most people living in the lower class, let alone the poverty line. Things such as cassette-based physical media, and public payphones are still existent, most automobiles are still locally manufactured rather than having parts imported and the gentrification of most major cities as a result of the has been non-existent, if not worsened by rocketed poverty rates. Modern technology still exists, as well as certain social media platforms, but they are mostly considered a luxury rather than a key part of everyday life.

**All Girls Want Bad Boys** -

**The Alleged Car** - Ryley’s pick-up truck is described in its first appearance as being old, noisy, rusted and run down. In reality, it’s actually Jay’s truck having been passed down by Jay’s uncle, but the characters (Ryley included) see it as Ryley’s own since she uses it frequently and far more often than Jay, who, for the most part, is a shut-in. That said, Jay is frequently doing consistent maintenance and repair on the vehicle, and a lot of the aspects that make the vehicle look as rugged as it seems are small, and purely aesthetic-based, due either to the car’s old age or Jay’s choice to keep it that way for Ryley.

**Alternate History** -

**Ambiguously Bi / Everyone Is Bi** -

**Amicable Exes** -

**Anyone Can Die** -

**Asshole Victim** -

**Attempted Rape** -

**Author Avatar** - While most readers will probably point to Jacob as the readiest example of this, as he most closely resembles the author Todd Cooper in terms of clothing and generalized appearance. But Word of God is that *all* the main characters in Blank Earth are somewhat an extension or full idealization of some aspect of Cooper himself, and that he personally relates far more to Ryley and Alex -- the two main protagonists, than to the Jacob character, who moreso embodies the novel’s aesthetic.

**Author Tract** - It’s probably not much of a surprise for a reader to learn that Cooper aligns himself heavily with philosophical absurdism or the political “dirtbag left”, as much of those ideas come rather directly into play in the world and events of Blank Earth, which puts a large emphasis on absurdist existentialism, deconstructs and critiques the drug war, the effectiveness of state social programs, consumer-based capitalism, neoliberalism and institutional prejudice, as well as taking issue with many modern "social justice warrior", centrist and "alt-right" beliefs, namely in regards to the hyperfixation and mishandling of identity politics and victim culture. Cooper’s penchant for early 90s culture and technology, street life, anti-fashion, the ‘urban decay’ aesthetic, and punk/grunge music are all notably prevalent here too. This is only dragged further along by the author's own admission that the majority of the events that occur in the book are taken directly from real-life events that have happened either directly to Cooper himself or people close to him.

**Backstory Horror** -

**Beggar with a Signboard** -

**Belligerent Sexual Tension** -

**Beneath The Mask** -

**Berserk Button** -

**Bi The Way** -

**Bifauxnen** -

**Big Bad** -

**Binge Montage** -

**Bittersweet Ending** -

**Black and Grey Morality** -

**Black Comedy** -

**Brand X** -

**Break The Cutie** -

**Break The Haughty** -

**Broken Ace** -

**Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl** -

**Byronic Hero** -

**Bury Your Gays** - Averted.

**But Liquor Is Quicker** -

**But Now I Must Go** -

**Caught With Your Pants Down** -

**Character Death** -

**Character Development** -

**Character Focus** -

**Character Overlap** -

**Chick Magnet** -

**Cluster F-Bomb** -

**Commune** -

**Cool Shades** -

**Corrupt Corporate Executive** -

**Could Have Avoided This Plot** -

**Covered With Scars** -

**Crapsack World** -

**Darker And Edgier** -

**Deadpan Snarker** - A trait shared by Alex, Jacob and somewhat Jay.

**Defrosting Ice Queen** -

**Delinquent** -

**Delinquent Hair** -

**Descent Into Addiction** -

**Despair Event Horizon** -

**Destructive Romance** -

**Developing Doomed Characters** -

**Disproportionate Retribution** - Dawn is perhaps the most altruistic, friendly and of the bunch, and the only one whose downfall isn’t directly related to a character flaw, her drug use and promiscuity was certainly risky but was never an out-of-control addiction nor negatively affected herself or others around her. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop her from being the first to meet her maker when she suffers a brain hemorrhage from a speedball in the stories second act and officially dies in the third when she is taken off life support. This, predictably only worsens every other character’s already steep downward trajectory, particularly that of the otherwise cheerful and innocent Ami who is so excruciatingly overwhelmed and devastated by the loss of her soulmate, brother, and the cold rejection from the person she loves that she decides to *opt-out*.

On the other side of things, you get Emily, who is a candidate for the group’s prime bitch, having been selfish, inconsiderate, lazy, promiscuous, and hostile to all the other characters thus far. She receives a reality dose when she is drugged at a bar and sexually assaulted, but this forces her to acknowledge and reconcile with her boyfriend Liam and walks away rather unscathed. Finally, you get Jacob, who starts out as a hermit and a junky, and is ambiguously responsible for the other character’s downfalls -- but aside from being wracked with guilt, he meets a wealthy medical student who is so intrigued and enamored by him that her dedication and good-natured optimism actually manages to help successfully lift him out of the rut he had been living in for years, going so far as to help him kick his opiate addiction, leave Seattle, get married and even father a child. It’s the one ending that isn’t a downer, but it’s made bittersweet when you consider that he isn’t particularly deserving of it, and even worse when he gets a large dose of inevitable comeuppance in the sequel. Jacob is eventually big enough to accept his dues and responsibility with what happened and make amends.

**Do Not Go Gentle** -

**Don’t You Dare Pity Me** -

**Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male** -

**Downer Ending** -

**Driven To Suicide** -

**Drugs Are Bad** -

**Drugs Are Good** -

**Dude, She’s Like In A Coma** - Gender-flipped.

**Dysfunction Junction** -

**Emotional Torque** -

**Establishing Character Moment** -

**Ethical Slut** -

**Even Evil Has Loved Ones** -

**Everybody Has Lots of Sex** -

**Expy** -

**Fag Hag** -

**Fingerless Gloves** -

**First Law of Tragicomedies** -

**Five Man Band** -

**The Hero** - Ryley.

**The Lancer** - Ryley and Jay.

**The Smart Guy** - Alex and Dawn.

**The Big Guy** - Jay and Jacob.

**The Chick** - Emily and (to an extent) Ami.

**The Sixth Ranger** - Emily and Jacob.

**Five Stages of Grief** -

**Five Token Band** -

**Flipping The Bird** - Several of the characters exchange these jokingly, but Ryley is the only character to actually give the middle finger with the express intent of offending someone.

**Four Philosophy Ensemble** - Ryley is The Cynic, Alex is The Realist, Dawn and Ami are both The Optimist, Jay and Jacob are The Apathetic and Emily is The Conflicted.

**Four-Temperament Ensemble** - Ryley is sanguine/choleric, Alex is melancholic/phlegmatic, Emily is sanguine, Jay is phlegmatic/choleric and Jacob is leukine/melancholic.

**Friends With Benefits** - Dawn and Ami, who are the most open about it and have something of a sex-positive mentor/protege relationship going on. Dawn also claims to have been this with both Alex and Jacob in the past, and Jacob and Kim have a non-romantic sexual history together as well. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Alex and Kim fall into this as a direct result of Ryley’s overly-protective and controlling behavior, and Ryley herself reveals to be this with Karmin, though it quickly begins to border on romantic. Jay is implied to have been this with Jacob for a short while anyway, and Emily sees the majority of her actual romantic relationships as being nothing more than this with added bonuses.

**From Bad To Worse** - Each action in the book serves as a well-aligned piece in an inevitable domino collapse, which starts with the book’s opening act as Ryley steals from a gas station, from there, the line of cause-to-effect leads to the book’s ultimately downer ending.

**Functional Addict** -

**Genre Shift** -

**Gray Rain of Depression** -

**Guilt Complex** -

**Heroic Self-Deprecation** -

**Heteronormative Crusader** -

**Hidden Depths** -

**I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship** -

**I Have You Now, My Pretty** -

**Immodest Orgasm** -

**Implied Love Interest** -

**Innocence Lost** -

**Informed Loner** -

**Jerk With A Heart of Gold** -

**Jumping Off The Slippery Slope** -

**The Lad-ette** -

**Lady Looks Like A Dude** -

**Laser-Guided Karma** -

**Lit Fic** -

**Love Hurts** -

**Love Martyr** -

**Meaningful Echo** -

**Muse Abuse** -

**My Sister is Off-Limits!** -

**Opposites Attract** -

**Paranoia Fuel** -

**Parental Abandonment** -

**A Party, Also Known As An Orgy** -

**Pet The Dog** -

**Precision ‘F’ Strike** -

**Police Brutality** -

**Poor Communication Kills** - Every character has issues with communication to a particularly realistic degree, and unfortunately plays a large part in each character’s respective pitfall.

**Porn Stash** -

**Posthumous Character** -

**Rag Tag Bunch of Misfits** -

**Rape As Drama** -

**Rape Is A Special Kind of Evil** -

**Reality Ensues** -

**Recurring Extra** -

**The Reveal** -

**Romanticized Abuse** - Averted

**Second Act Breakup** -

Second Face Smoke -

Sex Equals Love - Averted. Ami

Sex For Solace -

Simultaneous Arcs -

Sinister Subways -

Sleazy Politician -

Smoking Is Cool -

The Sociopath -

Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped -

Spicy Latina -

**Spiritual Successor** - Blank Earth is this to Cooper’s earlier unfinished psychological horror novel *Faust*. *Of Cigarettes & Copulation* follows this up by being a ‘sequel’ which only shares a few common themes and only one recurring main character.

**Survivor Guilt** -

**Switching POV** -

**There Are No Therapists** -

**Titled After The Song** -

**Tomboyish Name** -

**Triang Relations** -

**Unconventional Formatting** -

**Vice City** -

**Villain Protagonist** -

**We Used To Be Friends** -

**Wife-Basher Basher** -

**Wretched Hive** -

## Characters

### Ryley Summers

**Abusive Parents** -

**Anti-Hero** - While Ryley often views herself as the hero in her own story, her decisions are often malicious, harmful, and usually made without much consideration for others or the way her actions may negatively affect them. She also isn’t above using physical violence to get what she wants or lash out against those she actively

**Bald of Awesome** -

**Bald Women** -

**Berserker Tears** -

**Boyish Short Hair** -

**Butch Lesbian** -

**Caper Rationalization** -

**Chaotic Neutral** -

**Clingy Jealous Girl** -

**Cool People Rebel Against Authority** -

**Does Not Like Men** -

**Domestic Abuse** -

**Four Philosophy Ensemble** - The Cynic.

**Freak Out** -

**Freudian Excuse** -

**Good Is Not Nice** -

**Grand Romantic Gesture** -

**Green-Eyed Monster** -

**The Hero** -

**Hot-Blooded** -

**Important Haircut** -

**Innocently Insensitive** -

**Jerkass** -

**Knight In Sour Armour** -

**Loveable Rogue** -

**Never My Fault** -

**Rape As Backstory** -

**Second Love** -

**Soap Box Sadie** -

**Straw Feminist** - Averted.

**Sympathetic Murderer** -

**Tautological Templar** -

**Textual Celebrity Resemblance** -

**The Chain of Harm** -

**Tomboy** -

**Violently Protective Girlfriend** -

**You’re Cute When You’re Angry** -

**Well-Intentioned Extremist** -

**What Have I Become?** -

**Windmill Crusader** -

### Alexis Peterson

**Bookworm** -

**Boyish Short Hair** -

**Butch Lesbian** -

**Commitment Issues** -

**Cope By Pretending** -

**Emotionally Tongue-Tied** -

**Four Philosophy Ensemble** - The Realist.

**Freak Out** -

**Mistaken For Cheating** -

**Morality Chain** -

**Most Writers Are Writers** -

**The Ophelia** -

**Second Love** -

**Tattoo as Character** -