RMR: The Realm-Mesh Reality
is an anthology of
slightly tweaked stories from the late
Realm-Mesh Reality Wiki, published in late 2022 (shortly after the wiki's shutdown).
The Realm-Mesh Reality's stories contain examples of:
- Action Girl: Most of the female characters in stories can hold their own in fights and have done so at least once.
- Addiction Displacement: Rane used to be in the habit of biting her nails in stressful situations. Sara got her to stop by having her instead carry around a lollipop and suck on that in the same situations. This change apparently works, though Sara feels bad about having gotten Rane addicted to what she feels is also a bad habit.
- Albinos Are Freaks: Downplayed and Justified. Opal is bullied over his albinism by other kids, but it's largely due to the contrast between him and his dark-skinned family. Also, the bullying doesn't last long, as he stands up to it, reclaims it, and isn't bothered again.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the final chapter of Spinning Out, when Aiden is tied to a chair in the Gone's townhouse, he is saved by the dramatic entrance of every other character in the story (with the exclusion of Jag, who'd helped Aiden earlier in that chapter, and Evan, who shows up at the very end to clean up).
- Chekhov's Gun: In Spinning Out, one-third of the way through, Aiden asks Bri for a panic button. Near the end of the story, when he's tied up in the Gone's townhouse, it's revealed that she's given him one, which he uses to get help, thus saving himself and bringing down the relevant Gone members.
- Combat Haircomb: Discussed but Averted in Crimson Lightning. Sara wishes she'd put her hair up so she'd have a hairpin to free Rane from where the gargoyle's tied her up, but the point is moot, as Sara has in fact left her hair down and so has no such useful implement.
- Crazy-Prepared: Bri in *Spinning Out*, Bri has a plethora of items on her person that never come up and is able to construct just about anything necessary for avoiding sticky situations.
Bri: If you want, I'll come over and put some prime security around your house after school. […] I can rig up some nice electrified barbed wire, no problem. Heat and motion sensors linked to alarms. All the basic stuff.
- Curse Cut Short: In Spinning Out, Marcia has one of these:
Aiden: Where's Corey?
Marcia: He's in the hospital, you unthinking—
Alex: Marcia, it's not Aiden's fault.
- Dark Secret: Rane habitually accumulates these. Among the big ones that have come out are her participation in monster-fighting organization Crimson Lightning, stealing from her mother for said organization, and actually being a Quarterblood Vampire.
- Distressed Dude: Aiden in Spinning Out, no fewer than three times. The last one requires a Big Damn Heroes moment to save him.
- Dual Wielding: Adriana uses a pair of knives.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Kate gets one of these at the end of The Creature when it's needed to save Bri's life after spending the final third of the story trying to figure out how to unlock superpowers.
- Empty Promise: In The Creature, when Bri and Kate are stranded in an unfamiliar place with an unseen monster chasing them, Bri keeps Kate from despairing by telling her that they'll survive this and everything will fine afterwards, despite Bri silently believing the contrary. Subverted (see Foregone Conclusion below)...until Spinning Out reveals this to have merely been Downplayed, as while the characters did survive, it's clear that Kate never fully got over this.
- Everyone Can See It: Aiden obviously is interested in Alex. While Aiden believes himself to be good at hiding this fact, his friend Marcia and even his enemy Jag can tell. Alex cannot, and Aiden is perturbed when all of these facts come out.
- Everyone Is a Super: A very large percentage of the characters have superpowers, and those who don't usually have unusual weapon skills.
- Foregone Conclusion: The Creature begins by Bri reflecting on the fact that she and Kate both survive the dangers of the story.
- Full-Contact Magic: All of the superpowered characters in Spinning Out use this, albeit with different special effects.
- Funetik Aksent: In Illicit Vigil, the man who Rane talks to and the man's wife both have these.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Rane's father tells her not to gain any feelings of chūnibyō.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Rane's father is half-vampire, which is apparently human enough that his possible vampire status is relegated to gossip.
- Hand Blast: Kate shoots multicolored energy beams after learning how to do this.
- Hidden Supplies: Rane has a sai in her bag in case of emergencies.
- How We Got Here:
- The entirety of The Creature—save for its opening scene—is a flashback to the events of the story building to the opening scene.
- Crimson Lightning and Within the Edifice both do this as well, but with some story after the flashback catches up to the present.
- An Ice Person: Kirby uses ice powers to make snow, make ice ramps, freeze enemies, and accidentally hospitalize one of his friends.
- Just Friends: In Spinning Out, Aiden secretly has a crush on Alex. While this is reasonably obvious, Alex ignores or is oblivious to it. When Aiden accidentally reveals this in Alex's vicinity, Alex awkwardly refutes the crush, forcing Aiden to pretend that it didn't exist to save face. No mention of this is made for the rest of the story, and Alex is only referred to as a "friend" in her final appearance.
- Light Is Not Good: The only character with powers over Light in the Realm-Mesh Reality so far is Jag, who's a bully.
- Literary Allusion Title: ''Out of the Night that Covers Me''.
- The Night Owl: Rane would like to be one of these, but isn't allowed to be. Her father, on the other hand, is one. Both are justified by the fact that Rane's father is a Halfblood Vampire and Rane is a Quarterblood.
- Oblivious to Love: Implied. In Spinning Out, Alex gives Aiden an odd look when he makes an awkward romantic advance towards her. However, given her Just Friends reaction later, this is uncertain.
- Oral Fixation: Justified; Rane sucks on a lollipop, but it's to avoid biting her nails. Also Subverted, as, despite this trope being Lampshaded by Sara (who explicitly refers to this by the trope name in Crimson Lightning's narration), Rane is never seen with a lollipop again after the initial instance of this.
- Our Gargoyles Rock: The gargoyle in Crimson Lightning is not atop a building, is fully sentient, and can freeze time.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires haven't been elaborated much on, but silver seems to heal them rather than to hurting them as is the norm in vampire stories.
- Playing with Fire: Bri is capable of making fireballs, though her Crazy-Prepared status becomes much more relevant once it kicks in.
- The Pollyanna: Rane. Even after being temporarily frozen in place, attacked by a Living Statue, having to reveal one of her DarkSecrets, and nearly dying, she still manages to remain optimistic.
- Psychic Children: Madison can read minds. She's never seen using said power, but Aiden uses this once against their father to make him tell them an important secret.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Although Adriana succeeds in killing Yorick, this fails to give her unstoppable power, instead essentially depriving her of all the power that she had previously.
- Refuge in Audacity: When asked about something she doesn't want to have to answer, Rane Invokes this when Obfuscating Stupidity fails, saying lots of random lies in an attempt to creep out the person asking her. This succeeds, though she feels bad about it.
- Self-Deprecation: In the narration of Spinning Out (written by Aiden):
…[Kirby] said, "Aiden, not to be, well, Marcia, but I can tell something's bothering you." And I,
like the genius I am, said, "Dude, my relationship with Alex is none your business, okay?"
- Shout-Out: In Illicit Vigil, Rane imagines her grin hanging in midair by some people who she feels triumphant over.
- Telepathy: Madison has this. This is used against Evan when he learns about the Gone. He doesn't want to tell Aiden, but since Madison (who's in the room) can pick up on Evan's thoughts, Evan has to tell Aiden to avoid them getting a warped version of the truth.
- Thrill Seeker: Corey. Besides enjoying horror movies too much, he also goes after agents of a paramilitary cult he knows nothing about, winds up in the hospital, and—almost directly upon getting out—has to invade the cult's headquarters to rescue Aiden. And all he can say next time he runs into Aiden?
Corey: Aiden. Dude. This been awesome.
- Time Master: Downplayed. Both the gargoyle in Crimson Lightning and Alex have power over time, but the gargoyle can only freeze time, while Alex can only slow it down.
- Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Discussed by Spinning Out:
Aiden (narration): I have three slices of pizza on the way, because as awful as I feel right now, I'm still hungry.
- Uneven Hybrid: Rane is one-quarter vampire, three-quarters human, having a half-vampire father and human mother.
- Un-Paused: When the gargoyle decides to un-freeze time, this occurs. Played for Drama, as the results of the Un-Pause are everyone in the vicinity—story protagonist Sara included—being terrified of the gargoyle (which continues to move in the un-paused world) and running for their lives.
- The Un-Reveal: At the end of Out of the Night that Covers Me, Color Star's appearance is revealed to Gavril, but only as being "aweing as befit a sacred one".
- World of Badass: Most of the characters who appear in the stories are fully capable of self-defense and prove it through at least one combat scene.
- You Wake Up in a Room: Crimson Lightning starts this way.
Narration: Waking up from having been knocked out by I-don't-even-know-what is disconcerting. To make matters worse, I don't even know where I am now.
