Something that I attempted to do for artslam '09 and failed to keep doing for more than a few days...

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So, imagine a world similar to ours but containing magic. Not that it's really important (the similar to ours bit), since it'll end up getting a makeover soon. It's called Leysing, and it was at war.

Specifically speaking, two rather large and powerful countries were at war. Their names probably won't matter much, since they'll end up getting makeovers soon. (I was just lazy, perhaps they will get names.)

It so happens that one of said countries is home to a certain scientist who has come up with the ultimate plan of winning said war. A potion, which when dumped over your head will turn what you wish into reality. It was meant to be used to give his country an obscene advantage over the other, naturally. That was work done In Secret, a.k.a. right under your nose where you won't see it. It wasn't complete when this incident happened, which might have been why it happened in such a curious manner.

Anyway, the potion was located in a large university. Research, you know? The guy responsible for it was working on a strange combination of magic and chemistry. Perhaps biology. Maybe. He popped out to get a coffee on that fateful day, leaving the door open, reasoning that nothing could happen in the few seconds he'd be away. He would have been right, except he neglected two things:

1. Murphy's Law is in effect at all times

2. there was a group of children on a field trip that day, in which one little girl was particularly prone to being distracted.

okay yeah I should have tried to be more fanciful or something but /makes excuses

The scientist was still kicking the vending machine for swallowing his change when the world exploded into imagination.

When the smoke and everything from the aftermath of the explosion cleared, things were the same yet not quite.

Little Red Riding Hood clearly did not remember those huge grey blocks being anywhere along the journey to her dear grandma's house. Indeed, she did not remember ever remembering anything, and the incessant chattering in her head was giving her a migraine, which she never remembered ever having either. Not up till now, anyway.

In various places around the world and the universe it was contained within, various characters were also experiencing the same phenomenon- a sudden increase in mental activity, voices and mental images of people in their imaginations, a disturbance in their narrative. By some mechanism of materialisation, characters of similar interests had landed near each other, and they quickly banded together. In time, they learned that they needed to recreate the potion that had caused imagination and reality to reverse, in order to bring the world back to the way it was, but some had different ideas. In summary, everyone thought one or more of the following:

1. Bring the world back to the way it was

2. Bring the world back to the way it was except with ~*~world peace~*~

3. Not bring the world back to the way it was, leave everything there

4. Bring the world back to the way it was, with one country having an obscene advantage over the other

5. Bring the world back to the way it was, with one country having an even more obscene advantage over the other

6. You know what, I don't care, let's just get it done and over with so I can stop thinking already

7. Foil everything

It will be a while before it will be achieved, and anyway my point is to focus on the things that happen during this period of time.

Starting the next post, I'll be going through character designs and such, mostly.

Incidentally, here are some curious things that happened in the universe.

1. Moon rabbits are on the verge of extinction, with their survival threatened by bloodthirsty moon aliens.

2. Santa Claus exists.

3. On a certain asteroid B612 in space, a certain Little Prince has started to wonder how to protect a certain rose.

4. Internet trolls are trolling the mind out of a troll that lives under a bridge. He would love the memes to stop, they're driving him crazy.

5. A nazi feminist is mentally yelling at a damsel in distress. Both sides are in great mental distress.

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In the real world:



- characters have banded together with like-minded (as like-minded as they can get) characters to form a number of groups

- acting on instructions from the people in their minds, they go around collecting the necessary materials (not sure if want to be specific about the materials, but they can't be found easily, and even less so since the characters have little expertise and knowledge about the studies involved)

- would it be a better idea if it's only known that a potion is required to flip the world around and it's up to everyone to work out how to make it? Research and everything.

- or perhaps the materials aren't so much of a problem as obtaining the instructions- finding the exact books and the correct magic...

- need to work out what the heck's going on siiiigh I don't even know what the main part of the plot is about



Geography:



- things are more or less in the same places as they were in the blast

- parts that the child culprit visited before remained the same way they were

- parts that she hadn't visited before/have only a fuzzy memory of (which is most of the world) have been converted into any of the following:

1. lush green fields of grass

2. castles (whether evil-looking or grand fairy tale castles)

3. more forest (fairy tale forest with associated creatures living in it) (mountains are pretty much the same)

4. small fairy tale towns and villages

5. wreckage (mostly dust and only the foundations left standing- they make good hideouts but are dark and dangerous) (some buildings are left mostly intact, those are further from the centre of the blast)

It makes the land look funny, but no one's particularly willing to care about renovation.



Ecology:



- less intelligent lifeforms are found across the surface of the planet, those that appear at night are monsters and mostly dangerous, those that appear in the day tend to be harmless and mostly useless (except as food, maybe)

> these mostly only have a drive to feed

- there are kinds that have specific habitats, such as monsters under the bed and skeletons in the closet

- most non-real-world beasts are mindless, intelligent but do not speak, or intelligent and speak.

- forests contain a large number of magical beasts, mostly unicorns

- mountains contain fewer creatures, include pegasi

- bodies of water contain things like the Loch Ness Monster, which is strange as not all of them are called Loch Ness

- dinosaurs do exist, but in small numbers

- small fluffy forest animals may talk, but it's unclear which ones can and which ones can't, just by looking

- there's the occasional horror movie ghost, they appear only at night in secluded forest areas, small villages or deserted buildings, they're also very dangerous. They just are. No one's ever seemed to have contact with them, but that's presumably because they didn't get back to say they had contact.



In the mental world:



- Politicians are yelling at each other (if they have contact)

- The scientist in question has gone into hiding/is trying not to be imagined, though for some reason the way to make the potion has been leaked everywhere (or it hasn't, and it's only known that a potion was involved...or not at all and people are just finding other ways to get back?)

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I'm inclined to make it such that they aren't finding a way to get back because it's a pretty hopeless attempt and are just trying to survive. Boo.

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A lot of this feels like unnecessary stuff, but whateverrrrr

Need to work out:



- magic/protection

- factions (bases, and modes of transport etc.? How do they go about their jobs)

- mind/character interaction





Magic



- those with the strongest magic: protagonists/antagonists/characters that already canonly have magic power, for convenience's sake they're termed Main Characters

- knowledge of the use of magic comes from books- everyone has potential to use it but only by training can they use it

> books are important resources, they can be found in most places, but libraries hold books that explain deeper magic

- those with weak magic equip themselves with other weapons. If they're lucky they find guns, swords and the like but if they're not then too bad.

- magic works the same for everyone (so it's a science?) if they go about it the same way, but it's possible to invent other ways to make use of it

- fancy magic circles, you know.

- most are instantaneous/near instantaneous casting, wider area spells will need longer to cast

- not much of this is particularly special, I'm still thinking if I should make it unnecessarily complicated

- TOUKA KOUKANNNNNN so you can't really materialise things out of nothing uhhh unnecessarily complicated system here?



Factions

- they generally operate on the same rules:

- there is a base (especially for the larger ones, smaller groups may be nomadic) where most of the members seek refuge and survival resources exist

- characters with close association tend to follow each other around (e.g. Cinderella's fairy godmother joins the same faction that Cinderella does)

- it's been agreed upon that the stronger characters will venture out to look for the required materials

- some strong ones stay back to protect the base (mostly characters like fairy godmothers who are..motherly)

- transport is mostly by foot, some have horses/unicorns/pegasi depending on the area, witches have brooms, fairy godmothers can turn pumpkins into carriages...etc.

- on questing for materials- it's quite fuzzy since materials may not be in the same places and some may be really really distant...plus since the world was given a makeover old maps may not hold, most of the current work is exploration.



Mind/character interaction



- Headpeople can see/read/understand character's thoughts, whether said character wants to or not

- Headpeople don't seem to be fixed in each character's minds, they can travel between minds as long as the character has known/heard about them before (like plotting someone else's character- you can't do it unless that person tells you about their character) - for this reason characters are required to introduce their headpeople when they join a faction so the characters are more transparent to each other, but this does not mean betrayal cannot happen

- Characters cannot manipulate the form and thoughts of headpeople- they once existed as real people and cannot be changed, but they can be blocked out of thoughts with sufficient willpower

- Headpeople's thoughts are not readable by characters, unless the headperson says what they're thinking

- Headpeople don't die or need sustenance, but when the character dies, they disappear along with them unless they have another character's head to escape to

- Headpeople usually find out these rules by accident (character A mentions they have a voice in their head to character B), they do not already know

- Too bad for headpeople who end up in stupid characters' heads