It’s episode 9 of Multiplicity 101, and the Feathers are back with a discussion on otherworlds, walk-ins, and general metaphysically oriented plurality. Their interview guest is Wade from the Eclective system.
Here is a brief outline of the topics covered:
– What are Walk-ins
– Other-worlds
– A tour of otherworlds
– Interview: Wade from Eclective
– A PSA about community from Annie
A link mentioned in the show…
Astraea’s Web FAQ about gateway systems and otherworlds
Below the cut, the transcript, as well as a sampling of systems’ descriptions of their otherworlds in full.
A huge thanks to deAria for the transcript!
[music]
Aisling: Heya, it’s the Feathers. I’m Aisling, and this is the lovely Annie next to me.
Annie: Oh, you. This is the official podcast of Plural Activism. We are here to help educate the public about plurality/multiplicity. Dispelling myths, entertaining you, etc. etc.
Aisling: Speaking of fun, we like getting feedback and fan mail. Or un-fan mail, if that’s your bent. So please, let us know what you think. You can reach us at 101 at multiplicity101.com. We’re playing with a new production style and just trying out something a little bit different this time to see what it’s like and see if people like it?
Annie: It’s a little bit rough around the edges, but stick with us. I think that you’ll be pleased with the results. We’ve got a pretty good show for you today. The theme is Gateway Systems and Otherworlds, with an emphasis on the metaphysical side of plurality.
Aisling: Something we often ask our guests is, “Do you feel your system has more of a metaphysical origin, more of a neurological origin, or something else?” And that question is pretty important to us because we consider our system to have some metaphysical and/or spiritual aspects. The first thing I think we should do is just talk about some definitions. There’s a lot of words in there: metaphysical, spiritual, psychological, neurological… Let’s just start with metaphysical. You want to take this one?
Annie: Sure, why not? Metaphysical is just referring to phenomena that are outside the purview of accepted science, which segues nicely into spiritual, which is sort of a concern with the spirit or the soul. And of course, this is not just your own soul, but those of those in your system. And pulling it all together, a system with metaphysical or spiritual origins is like a gathering of souls. The people in question did not originate with the body’s brain. It’s like a spirit medium whose visitors never left.
Aisling: Psychological or neurological is the flip side of that coin. It’s the belief that the system originated entirely inside the brain. Of course, there are a lot of in-between possibilities, like some members are neurologically-based and some are metaphysically-based. So… Do you want to say it?
Annie: Sure. Every system is different, and every system’s own belief should be respected.
[music]
Aisling: So one of the first things that we can talk about is, what is a walk-in? Walk-in is a systemmate who came from outside the body. Could be channelled spirits, past lives, inhabitants of other worlds, fictives/factives, angels…
Annie: Hello.
Aisling: Visitors, etc. Fictives are people who…
Annie: Going to take that one.
Aisling: Okay.
Annie: Fictives are people who appear in fiction in consensus reality. For example, if you have Superman in your system. And that really begs us to ask what “consensus reality” is. Consensus reality is just a term that means the world that we live in out here, which is a place that we kind of all agree exists and how it exists, and thus, the term “consensus”. One theory is that the person who wrote the fiction is channelling something about someone in another reality, and the fictive is actually a connection to that original people or some version thereof in the multiverse. So in effect, you’re actually connecting to a real person somewhere out there that, in our universe, in this consensus reality, they exist as a piece of fiction, but in some other multiverse universe–that was a great turn of phrase–[laughs] Some other version of this particular universe, they’re out there and actually a real person.
Aisling: Now there’s a similar word called “factive”, and that’s people who also appear in consensus reality. So for example if you had Obama in your system or someone like that… As far as origin theories, similar kind of situation to fictives, really. It’s just that they happen to appear as non-fiction in this world too.
Annie: Yes, we had to include the words fictive and factive because they’re well-known, but they’re often disliked by the people in question. There’s sort of an implication that they’re less people. The baggage of the terms fictive and factive are not a trait of the individual; that’s just people’s false assumptions about what they are, and it’s better to just think of them as people who walked into a system who are just as real as anyone else.
Aisling: Just as real as, say, visitors, which are just random people who show up from the outside of the system and take up residence inside. Next up we have angels, fae, mythological creatures… It’s possible for all of these to show up, and just like with fictives and factives and anyone else, it’s less important that you believe in them and more important to treat them as real individuals with real lives and real minds and real likes and dislikes and everything else that comes with any other person.
Annie: So, happy fun example time. [laughs] Aisling here is fae, who was born into this body, but considers her ultimate origins to be outside that body. She feels like she came from somewhere else and just, more or less walked into this system at birth. I’m a little bit different. I’m an angel–or, I also say, celestial–who walked into the system a little bit later. And our third fronter is actually also a walk-in who is also fae, and she came in later just like me.
Aisling: Is this really any different from common beliefs that people are souls born into bodies to live here? It’s just that some of them show up a little bit later than birth. There’s a lot of sceptics out there, but you know what? This is our reality. And it’s not hurting anyone even if it turned out not to be true, so just let us be.
Annie: Otherworlds! We’ve talked about them a little bit before. We’re going to be focusing on two things this time. One of those things is the subjective reality of them to participants, and the other one is the belief that they are not located in the brain. Some might think this is just a make-believe space that people fantasise about, but it’s not. It has a subjective reality to the people experiencing it. Is **your** reality real? It too is subjective experience of the observer. What is subjective reality? Well, it’s what you perceive as real through your senses. Various things can distort that reality, such as hallucinogens. And others can augment it, like virtual reality. It really gets back to that term “consensus reality” that we talked about in the last section. Consensus reality is the agreed commonalities between our subjective realities.
Aisling: So another thing about other worlds is, we came up with these interesting terms, I think. We hope people will like them anyway. The first one is “system-first” and the second one is “world-first”. System-first means that the world came about as an adjunct to a system. So an example of this is a space where basically everything about the other world is designed around the people who inhabit the system. All of its laws of physics, all of its places, everything is pretty much–you could say, created in response to the existence of the system. This is as opposed to a world-first world, where it’s more like the system has attached itself to an existing world that already exists somewhere out there. And it’s possible for, I think, someone to be somewhere in between these, or to have sections of their other world that are one or the other. They’ve got a pretty different character.
Annie: Also worth mentioning, as we’d mentioned in a previous podcast, singlets also have an other world sometimes, especially writers, and the whole section on otherworlds in the Astraea glossary and FAQ are really interesting on this point–or all these points, really–so we’re going to put a link to that in the show notes. That leaves us with the question of, “Are they real places?” We already talked about the absolute sense of reality of them to the people who are experiencing them. They’re definitely absolutely real to those people, and there’s no question about that. Do they exist somewhere in the multiverse? Well, who knows? Maybe. Some believe they are connected to alternate universes or realities or other places in space-time. Some of the places seem to have different laws of nature, making it unlikely they’d be located in this universe. But who knows, the multiverse is a large place. No matter where they are or what they are, the inhabitants experience them as a real place, and that experience should be respected.
Aisling: We thought it’d be fun and interesting to hear about some practical examples of other worlds. We conducted a little bit of a survey in the plural community just to see what different people’s otherworlds were like, and we want to just start this section out by just talking about the commonalities that we found in those otherworlds.
Annie: This is just common characteristics and not really so much shared features as just… Things that are similar between them.
Aisling: So most of them have a planet or a planet-like area of some kind… Just some land that looks like Earth or something similar. Most of the have Earth-like physics, sometimes with additions like magic or teleporting. The political structures in these worlds tend toward benevolent dictatorships or councils, and the economies tend to be bartering if anything. Interesting little subtopic… Governing bodies are sometimes staffed by the fronters in the systems, and sometimes by the system members of those worlds. So this kind of goes back to that whole system-first versus world-first distinction that we made earlier, which is that some of these worlds are kind of dependent on the system and some of them are just self-functioning in and of themselves. Other things about these otherworlds that we found were in common…
Annie: Communication tends to be by speech where possible, and sometimes also telepathy. Almost everyone has books and libraries. Interesting subtopic here also, which is, what’s in those books? For some, it’s system memories; some have slightly modified outworld book copies, “outworld” being a term for “back in this world”, so outworld from the point of view of that otherworld.
Aisling: Almost all the environments are generally considered pretty pleasant for their inhabitants. And there are some otherworlds that are kind of hubs for more otherworlds, each with their own characteristics, so… This is like you go to this one place and then there’s kind of gateways or other methods of getting into still yet more places.
Annie: So we’re going to talk about three specific examples of otherworlds that we picked out from the survey that we did. The first one is from a group that wants to remain anonymous. They have a planet, there is a sun, moons, seasons, normal weather. They have 8 islands or continents. There’s kind of a cold north and a desert-y volcanic south and a temperate middle climate. This world has normal physics with a little bit of magic. They can sort of create things from nothing within reason, and to explain that, it’s kind of like… It’s easier to make flour, butter and eggs than to make a cake, so…. Sometimes you can create things, and other times it takes a little bit more effort and you have to do it the long way around. They have what they refer to as a benevolent dictatorship, and their economy is just basic bartering for time or whatever. They communicate with physical speech, and also some people have magical talent and they can use telepathy. And there’s a new phone system that they’re putting in. Then they’re just working out the issues on that, so… That’s kind of the long distance communication for the people who are not magically inclined.
Aisling: They’ve got lots of books and some libraries, and apparently they’re working on TVs and playing videos, but it’s kind of slow-going. All in all, it’s considered a peaceful place. There’s no worrying about bills, homelessness, going hungry; and it’s got some nice, beautiful, natural areas. So we’re going to continue with our history of navel-gazing here [laughs] and talk about our otherworld, which is called Taleia. That name actually came to us from one of the inhabitants of the world. It’s basically like a planet, like the Earth. It’s got mountains, oceans with some islands, there’s even some floating islands up in the sky if you know where to look for them. And then there’s a big city that we discovered that is called Calafae. It’s got a–it’s built in the shape of a circle, and it’s got libraries, art galleries, food places, so on and so forth. Our world has what we like to call will-based physics, and basically what that means is that things tend to stay where you left them like they would here, but a lot of what you can do is based on will and wishes, and that’s not just for us who are part of the system, because we just consider ourselves to be part of the world. We consider our otherworld to be a world-first world, because we discovered it, and now we have a presence there. But it was there before us, and it’s probably going to be there after us. [laughs] But I digress. The point I was trying to make is just that the inhabitants of this world, including us, are able to do various things using willpower, so you can say, like, “Okay, I want my house to be green.” And suddenly, your house is green.
Annie: I should throw in there that this probably wouldn’t work quite so well if the inhabitants weren’t also relatively happy and cooperative. And part of the reason why they’re happy and cooperative is that this is a world that doesn’t have scarcity, because things can happen based on wishes and there’s no reason to have scarcity in a world like that [laughs] because anything that you want, you can have, pretty much.
Aisling: Maybe except for the things where the wishes are actually contradictory, which is not something that we run into much, but I suppose that’s the reason that there is actually a council in Calafae. We actually don’t know a whole lot about it, which is another good example of how we don’t control this world. The economy is basically bartering. Again, just time and smarts and creativity and things like that. Like there’s places where you can go and trade a poem for some food, which you don’t actually need to eat because again, [laughs] no scarcity. But it’s something that you can do for fun.
Annie: People talk with physical speech, but then also there’s telepathy between anywhere in the world. I guess you can figure that there’s no particular special magically-inclined people because everyone is magically-inclined if you can will things into being. So yeah, we can talk with telepathy, and that goes for people that are part of the system proper also, that we can communicate with each other and also with people who are not in front. There’s, as we mentioned, lots of books and libraries, and this is maybe…
Aisling: Yeah, maybe this is something I should go about [laughs]. Actually, a lot of my time that I spend in the otherworld is spent at this little bookstore in Calafae, which is run by this very nice old guy and–you know, again, there’s not really an economy, there’s not really money per se, so what good does a bookstore have? Well, it’s kind of like a library where people can go and give books that they’re done with, take new books for themselves. They talk to us and we can give suggestions on books that they might like. Just one of those kind of places that’s more like a library or book club, I guess, than a bookstore, but it’s got a bookstore vibe. In general, Taleia’s a really peaceful place with lots to explore and we really enjoy living there.
Annie: So that leaves us with our third example, which is from the Eclective system, which we are going to interview someone from the Eclective system later in the podcast, but this is a little bit about their otherworld. It’s sort of a pocket of a war-torn and environmentally-destroyed Earth. The people in the section of the otherworld that they have access to, and that they spend time in, had kind of sealed themselves off when the trouble started, so… They’re a little piece of a world, then they… As far as they know, nothing–there aren’t really any people or anything outside that area anymore. This world has normal physics with some magic. You can’t just say, “Poof! Think of a table.” And have one like you would in our world. But there is magic, and a lot of the politics in that place revolve around petitioning gods for favours and keeping the magic flowing. There are tribal governments mainly within communities which are pretty self-sufficient. There’s some larger politics about magic and caring for the world. As we mentioned before, it’s… They don’t want it to turn out like the rest of the world that they sealed themselves off from. And their economy is basically just bartering. Sensing a trend here [laughs]. They mostly speak with physical speech, some telepathy. The system members who are in front in the body can telepathically tune in and listen, is the way they explained it. They do have books and libraries, and the overall description of the place was that it’s basically kind of alien but beautiful. That’s from the point of view of someone who’d lived on Earth previously.
Aisling: There were a lot of others that we didn’t really have time to include. There’s worlds composed of multiple otherworlds… There’s physics from completely will-based to hard Earth physics… There’s benevolent dictatorships, hierarchies, councils, bureaucratic Earth-style governents… We hope to include some of the in the show notes, but the actual amount that we can do is kind of TBD, so… Tune in to the show notes, we’ve got the URL for it at the end, and see what we can get in there. We didn’t get to include everyone’s information about their system, but we still want to give a shout-out, some thanks to everyone who participated in our survey, because it really helped us figure out the commonalities between everyone’s systems. And that would be:
* the Horde system
* Nightmare Valley
* Fading Spectrum
* Miaii system
* Treehouse collective
* House of Chimeras
* the Working Title system
Thank you all so much for contributing your information.
[music]
Annie: Okay, I’m here interviewing the Eclective system, and it’s kind of exciting because I’m actually doing it in person. [laughs] So, can you give us a quick introduction to yourself?
Wade: Hi! I’m Wade, and I’m doing the first ever in-person interview for the Plural Activism podcast, it seems. Um, quick introduction to myself… I’m 26, I’m a walk-in from–from another universe, basically, and I wound up in this system because of that. Um… I don’t know. [laughs] Anything else you want me to say? I like dogs! I really like dogs.
Annie: [laughs] That’s good. Can you tell us a little bit about your system?
Wade: Hmm, okay. Well, we’re a gateway system, which means that basically, we consider ourselves… We consider our otherworld, I guess, I’m just kind of getting to that… But we consider our otherworld to be… Another world where we have sort of a portal to other places. Other people can come here from other worlds and often do, so we’re kind of like an interdimensional hub for various travellers, I guess you could call that.
Annie: Do you have an otherworld, and you want to talk about that?
Wade: Yes, yeah, I kind of preempted your question there, but, yeah, we have like basically an otherworld in the system which–**I** experience to be a whole separate world. It’s a world with its own residents, its own culture, its own climate, its own people, it’s as physical and solid as this world. I actually tested that once by sort of like, banging my fists really hard on the ground, and then I ended up with like a gash in my hand because I hit on a rock. So yeah, it’s pretty real and solid. [laughs] But yeah, the–it’s interesting, it’s a variant of Earth, all the parallel universes I’ve travelled to are variants of Earth, and if you recognise my name, you’ll probably know what that means, everybody seems to recognise it… But yeah, so it’s a variant of Earth, but it’s very different from what you’d expect. It’s very… It’s more of a magically heavy place, I guess you’d say, and the people that inhabit it, most of them actually aren’t human, but–so this is a long reason in history why that ended up that way, but… But it’s–it’s still Earth, which is kind of weird. It took me a long time to get used to all the, you know, animal-fairy people, it’s not really my experience of life, you know, or my experience of most Earth-like worlds, so it was a little bit strange, but we, you know, worked it out and we go along now, so yeah.
Annie: What’s your relationship to the body? You know, how do you view it? And I’m sure I can let you–you can make a statement on the tattoo issue.
Wade: Oh yeah, see, that’s definitely… Yeah, I mean obviously, it’s not my body, I have my own body back in the otherworld, you know. And at the same time, this is the body that I’m operating in this world, and people were comparing it earlier to like a–you know, a vehicle or a vessel or something, and I like to think with my own body in the otherworld, I have a very… I am a very body-centred person, I have a very, sort of… “Empathic” isn’t the word, but I guess I have a very spiritually entangled relationship with my body, I see the body and the spirit as two halves of a whole, and so being in a body that isn’t mine is pretty weird in that sense, because I’m used to feeling such a strong connection to my own body, and this one isn’t it. But I’ve tried my best to sort of, while I’m here, you know, do compromises to sort of make it the best it can reflect me, you know, without like harming it for the rest of the system. So you know, like I’ve dyed the body’s hair, and I’ve got like contacts and my own clothes and stuff, and I’ve also really sort of embarked on a weight-loss program, which everybody is like… Complaining about… But they enjoy it really! But yeah, the tattoo issue. Like, we have pretty prominent tattoos, and various people in the system have tattoos, and so you know every time I go out, I’m just going to like Starbucks or something, people start commenting on the tattoos, and they’re like, “Oh, what does that mean?” And I’m like, “I dunno, it isn’t mine…” [laughs] And it’s kind of awkward, because it’s like, I dunno. If I’m going to launch into a conversation like that about… Something that is a symbol that’s very personally meaningful, very… You know, tattoos are a very personal symbol, like they’re meaningful, and I don’t want to be like, “Oh yeah, well this represents when I was like blah blah blah,” when it doesn’t have anything to do with me and it’s not my life, it gives a false representation of who I am as a person, so… It’s kinda awkward to just have them on display, but then again, we live in SoCal, and you can’t really wear long sleeves here, like, except in like two months in the winter, so… [laughs] So yeah, it can be kind of frustrating sometimes, but well, that’s what you deal with.
Annie: Did you find your experience as a walk-in to be particularly different from others in the community?
Wade: Yeah, yeah, very much so. I mean, a lot of people, a lot of systems, I found sort of… They can get away with having like a neurological explanation for it, or a psychological explanation for it, and if they don’t feel like being really super far-out with their theories and stuff, you know, they can just sort of retreat to this little comfortable space of like, “Oh hey, you know? Well, we’re just creations of the brain and whatever,” or, “We’re just, you know, oh, when you get really into some story or something, you sort of form a little representation of a character in your brain or something, you know.” And for me, that kind of stuff doesn’t work, and with my experiences, if I just… Honestly, I find it kind of offensive, personally, you know? To sort of say I’m a creation of someone’s brain, like… I dunno. I’m a pretty spiritual person, I was raised with kind of lapse but still kind of Catholic Christian traditions, and you know I believe I’m a creation of God. You know? And it’s sort of hard for me to… You know, get around this idea that some people are just okay with being like creations of whatever some mortal human mind that doens’t… Doesn’t make sense to me. So my experiences, just my experiences suggest a very solid, physical, real explanation for my existence and my existence in the otherworld. And I think that’s kind of confronting to a lot of people because they don’t really want to… You know, they may pay lip service to the possibility, but I don’t think they really want to necessarily accept the possibility of like… What all that means, if that was actually literally true, so… I get the feeling it’s a kind of confronting view to some people, and so we don’t always get along, but… Yeah.
Annie: So I guess that kind of ties into this last question, which is: Do you feel that your system has more of a metaphysical origin, or psychological origin, or something else?
Wade: Yeah, I mean personally, **I** feel like… I mean, I feel like it’s a metaphysical/physical thing. Like, there is some very real, concrete… You know, not that the metaphysical isn’t real, but the way we experience physical, solid reality, there is a component of that to the otherworld that’s just the same as this one. But if I was to say sort of like, how these things function, I would definitely it’s more metaphysical than psychological. Like I wouldn’t call it a psychological construct; I find that pretty insulting. But you know, I’m not the only one in here, I mean I’m talking like I’m speaking for the system, and really I’ve been here just a few months, and you know this body is like 31 years old. So, you know, I’ve not been here long in this span of time, and everybody here has different opinions. Some people, um… They think of themselves more as a psychological construct and they’re fine with that. And some people think of themselves as spirits who have left their bodies and are residing here. Some people don’t know and they’re fine with not knowing! They’re just kind of like, “Well, whatever. Doesn’t really matter. We’re here now and that’s the important thing.” But I–I dunno. I hold very strongly to my own experience of reality because I~ kind of think if I didn’t I’d probably go crazy. And… [laughs] Yeah, so that’s me, personally. But yeah, ask 10 people in the system, you’d get 11 different answers, I think is the general consensus with these things, so yeah.
Annie: Okay. Well, thank you very much for your time. And it’s good to have you on.
Wade: Yes! Thank you very much.
Annie: In a normal podcast, this is probably where we would stop. And we do our little outtro with the music and everything… But I have one other thing that I wanted to talk about, and that is community. Community is so important to us. You can’t just talk to random friends or family about being plural, so having each other is really important. For those who are discovering themselves, having an I’m-not-crazy place is important too. And shared information that we can show between each other is also useful and important. It helps us to understand ourselves, and try to figure out what’s going on. Activism is important too. Some people think that’s we’re all okay and the closet, and I guess some people are okay in the closet. But part of the reason why we’re okay is because we haven’t even hit the starting line. There’s that saying, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you…” We’ve hardly move onto step 2. If you want to see what that looks like, then take a look at the United States of Tara and things like that. That’s the “they laugh at you” part. It’s not very nice. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d like to see the sun on my own face someday, so to speak. Community activism is a first step. We can take a step back and look at ourselves, what we do, what we’ve become… There’s so many divisions, like DID versus natural systems, and neurological versus metaphysical systems… You know, there really aren’t that many of us to begin with. First, we should just listen to each other as **people**. Remember that we’re all on the same side here, wanting better treatment inside and outside the community. It all starts with us. Listen to your neighbour, accept that their views are valid for them, get your own voice out there too.
[music]
Annie: Thank you for listening to Multiplicity 101. You can be a future guest on Multiplicity 101. If you’re interested, please contact us at 101 at multiplicity101.com. If you have any questions or comments, please email us also.
Aisling: This is an educational podcast of the group Plural Activism. Come join our discussion group on Yahoo! Groups called plural_activism. The URL will be in the show notes.
Annie: You can find show notes and other information at our Website, multiplicity101.com, or at our Dreamwidth page,plural-activism.dreamwidth.org.
Aisling: This podcast was produced with Audacity, a community-build audio editor. And the music was created in GarageBand. The podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivatives licence, which means that you can copy it freely as long as you credit us and you don’t modify it. For all other uses, please contact us.
A huge thank you to all the systems and people who participated in our survey, and a special thanks to those who were willing to let us post it here in the show notes.
These are essentially the entries that didn’t make it into the podcast itself.
Fading Spectrum
* What’s the general character of your other-world? (A planet, a starship, etc)
The mindscape is a grassy field surrounded by mist. I have recently started venturing beyond the mist from time to time, and it seems to all be contained in some glass dome floating in space. So, I actually have little to no idea. There are three main parts to it; the lake, the Canvas, and the tree.
~ The lake is a vast area, covering about half of the space in the field. It is as deep as it is wide, and at the bottom is Olive’s underwater library. I suppose “library” is a little misleading at this point. It stores our collective memory in data form, rather than books.
Of course, it is “Olive’s” area. She is pretty much the only one that can navigate it without getting lost. It’s why we’ve just designated her the “memory keeper”.
~ The supercomputer that has been dubbed the Canvas. It works as the “front”; we can control the body like using a mechasuit. The screens on it project the view of the outerworld, and we are capable of taking control for Fade. Oddly, she usually holds her grip on it even if she is dragged to some other part of the wonderland.
~ The tree with the door is exactly that; a large oak tree, with a wooden door in it’s side. The door leads anywhere we need it to. If we were to visit one of our “alternate worlds” – which are essentially worlds in extension of the mindscape – that is how we get there. It also allows easy access between Olive’s library and the field part of the wonderland.
In order to summon things, move objects, work the Canvas, alter our appearances, and use the door in the tree, we use something we call “imagination magic”. What is that? It is Exactly What It Says On The Tin. Our wonderland has been around as long as Fade has had us, so it is as much an immutable stable of her (our?) mind as we are.
It seems mostly to be a hub, as it serves as a connection to the physical world and a front, as well as allowing us to visit a plethora of other places we have dubbed “alternate worlds”. The most important alternate worlds are much larger, and literally worlds unto themselves.
That makes us a gateway system, I suppose.
* What are the physics like? Will-based? Hard physics like this world?
In the mindscape portion, very much will-based. I cannot recall how many times I have seen someone shout “SCREW PHYSICS!” and ignore gravity just for the hell of it.
Serious guys. It is much, much less amusing the hundredth time you have milked that sorry meme for all it is worth.
However, in our alternate worlds, we are usually obliged to follow the rules of physics. Thank goodness. The only exception would be certain powers that naturally defy physics in said world – such as telekinetics in GovWorld – and summoning the rift door that allows us to go back to the mindscape.
* Is there an economy / ruling body / etc? Basically a political structure.
It depends on if we are in the mindscape or one of the attached alternate universes. The alternate universes have wildly varying political and economic structures.
For example, the world of Aterae is comprised of five different countries; Middlund, Carveil, Teurbia, Pharazi, Neir. A democracy, trade-union organized anarchy – not my country, ask me not how that works – a monarchy, an oligarchy, and a passive dictatorship.
And Destinari is dotted by human cities mostly run by merchants and a guild of knights. It has no formal collective government, as each city governs itself and trades with nearby cities.
And the one we have recently dubbed “GovEarth” is under the iron fist of a 1984-style government. That one, we do not visit as much. It is not as nice a place.
We also have an alternate version of the Pokemon world. And from my limited understanding, the Pokemon world manages to function without a government of any sort.
The mindscape is virtually just us and any walkins that have decided to pop in for a bit. Thus, no need for a governing system.
* How do system members communicate in-world?
Mostly by talking to each other. I suppose you could call it thinking aloud?
We can also communicate nonverbally by means of the computer that serves as the Front, the Canvas. When multiple people are “plugged into it” ie fronting, then we get to blending and our thoughts flow together without prompting.
The Twins have shown multiple times that, even without using the Canvas, they are capable of communicating between each other without words. It probably has something to do with how they are essentially a median sub-system within the Spectrum.
Drewbie flashes images across the screen of the Canvas to talk. In the mindscape, I do not believe he has ever had an actual voice.
* Do you have books/videos/internet/libraries?
Yes, yes, no, yes. We have books and videos. Most of them are outsourced from either things Fade has seen in the physical world, or they are taken from one of the alternate universes. There is no internet, so much as a computer network that spans between the Canvas and Olive’s underwater library and passes information back and forth.
And with that, I have also answered the latter question.
* In general, what’s it like living in that world?
It is good. So long as I can stand the other members of my system, I can tolerate it. And if I cannot stand them, I can dip out into one of the alternate universes for a while.
The only unfortunate bit is the general obligation to the physical realm and certain aspects of the alternate universes. They are stressing.
Nightmare Valley
* What’s the general character of your other-world? (A planet, a starship, etc)
What we call our main inner-world is a rogue planet, there’s no sun, but the planet seems to have internal heat – not making it a frozen rock – and two moons, one little and dark and the bigger one locked in its orbit, this moon is covered by a type of crystal that glows a blue-like light illuminating the side of the planet it’s orbit is locked, and where our Valley is.
The Valley is surrounded by gigantic black mountains with frozen tops, after there’s a forest with dark green leaves and the trunks of the trees are almost black, is very dense and difficult to wander around there. After the forest there’s the meadow, full of flowers and plants, most light green or almost white, since our only light source comes from our moon the colors are all based on the moonlight. In the very middle of the meadow is our Mansion, surrounded by a garden with flowers that look a lot like white roses – but looking closely, they’re not – there’s a lake behind the Mansion, the bottomless lake of Abel, his home and in the front of the Mansion there’s a fountain and a white tree with no leaves that blooms white fragrant flowers from time to time. Aside from occasional insects like moths (or moth-like) and some black birdy-creatures there’s no other animals we found so far.
Inside the Mansion we have the central room where most of us stay and the endless rooms on the Mansion for everyone to use (it works like layers of reality overlapping each other, it’s literally infinite the quantity of rooms that the Mansion have), we normally stick with the central room.
Beyond the Valley there’s the rest of the planet and what we call the Exile, there’s no sign of life there, only broken mountains and black rocks and a black fog that don’t let the light reach it’s bottom, everywhere. The last time we ventured there (me and Light) we sensed something, like a presence of a creature lurking in the darkness beyond, but we were never sure.
AND there’s the universe we are connected with. It’s basically it… a whole entire universe with many planets, life forms, civilizations, species, sentient life, even another version of this earth.
* What are the physics like? Will-based? Hard physics like this world?
In the Valley I’m pretty sure if someone out of our system stepped in would be bound by the same physics that operate in the outer world, but us… for us things are different. The universe we visit follow the same rules, hard physics based with a few exceptions.
We’re not bound by our forms, everyone that enter our system if wanted can acquire another one, change the one they arrived, etc. Basically because we’re not exactly “material” beings – not in the Valley nor in this universe we visit – we’re energy, basically sentient energy, we’re light and smoke, fog… I don’t know how to explain in words what we are, but the moment a person enter our system, no matter what they were – human, alien, angel, demon, no matter what – they’ll became what we are. The forms we present are not immutable exactly because they’re just reflections of what we were or what we wished to be, that’s why we’re not affected by the laws of physics, the Mansion seems to be somethings like that too, though not bearing an “aware consciousness”.
However, even if we’re not restricted to this rules if we hold too tightly in our forms, not concentrating in what we truly are we might be affected by the laws of physics like gravity, not able to change forms and the like.
We are – in this universe within – what people would call here ascended beings (at least our bodies).
* Is there an economy / ruling body / etc? Basically a political structure.
We have “positions” in our system that came to be naturally, it wasn’t imposed or voted, it simply happened. First there’s me, I act as the Memory Holder of the body (and by consequence my own memories) being half-locked on the front, basically the main fronter too; we have what we call now the Overseer, it will make the decisions with me (or for me if necessary), guide the system in times of crisis and help those in need, today Nemu is doing this job; then we have the main fronters team; the healers; the guardians; the warriors; and I could go on, but it will be too many. We don’t have an economy, not in the Valley, but I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of political structures and different types of economy in the universe we’re connected. There’s no rules aside from don’t harm the body, try not harm each other. xP
* How do system members communicate in-world?
Mostly verbally, but if we’re too far we can talk mentally, sometimes we do this when we’re unable to speak for a reason or other. Oh we have some high tech devices that enhance our telepathy.
* Do you have books/videos/internet/libraries?
Yes for all. We have a library located somewhere in one of the rooms of the Mansion, books with stories we imagined, our stories, things about the system, the universe, our memories, etc. We can create movies, videos connecting directly with the main panel; the “internet” in the Valley, more like an intranet stores all the information about our system, the Valley and the universe we have contact with, more like a huge database.
* In general, what’s it like living in that world?
It’s pretty peaceful when we’re not exploring other planets and places in the universe… we’re likely involved in a war that is nor ours the last few days, but now we can’t simply back off and let everyone to their own luck… >_> Though we know we might involve ourselves in trouble we like to explore too much. xD
* Anything else you want to add.
We consider our system partially gateway, mostly because we visit this universe, but the people from there can’t visit us, if they truly want they have to join the system and left behind the lives they had.
The Treehouse
* What’s the general character of your other-world? (A planet, a starship, etc)
It’s a very fine mansion, with enormous grounds and a forest bordering the northern part. It has a garden for food, and kitchens to cook it in, and cattle pastures on the far side I only just noticed.
It’s- we assume- part of a planet or its own dimension (sort of like Oz), where we are cut off from the rest of the other world.
* What are the physics like? Will-based? Hard physics like this world?
Halfway between. You have to walk to get anything or anywhere you want, but everyone has a “spawning point”- some part of the world where they always appear if they decide to be there instead of the clearly imagined front-space.
* Is there an economy / ruling body / etc? Basically a political structure.
Like in the system, Reid makes all the executive decisions, but since the Manor is just supporting a dozen or two people there isn’t a lot of need for a massive government.
* How do system members communicate in-world?
Lots of ways. If we’re far apart, we can yell/think loudly, and the other person will probably hear us. Or speak ‘verbally’ inworld.
* Do you have books/videos/internet/libraries?
We have books and a library, along with some gaming systems. But there’s not really a point for internet (though someone’s in the process of making it for us).
* In general, what’s it like living in that world?
It’s very nice. There aren’t many people other than systemmates, and we don’t usually see them.
* Anything else you want to add.
The headspace is really influenced by our collective mind, but the Forest is what really pushes home the idea that we are not in total control. It’s the focal point of the other world, and also the barrier between us and the rest of that other world- presumably because our brain can’t handle it.
Working Title
* What’s the general character of your other-world? (A planet, a starship, etc)
ALEXIS: Our world, or at least the part of it that concerns us directly, is comprised of a Corridor. White walls, white floor, full-length plate glass where the view is interesting.
CASS: One end of the Corridor is the front! The other end… well, as far as we can actually reach, the other end is the Break.
ALEXIS: The Break is a long, jagged break in the Corridor, opening out to a black void.
CASS: That’s where Tersh used to live.
ALEXIS: The appearance of the Break roughly correlates with Tersh’s deactivation-
CASS: We killed him.
ALEXIS: But other theories suggest that the Break corresponds with the Terrible Events – which, for the uninitiated, were the parental events that led to our leaving home permanently.
ANNA: Actually, we made the whole Corridor then, didn’t we? With the Break already there and everything!
CASS: You weren’t even there!
ANNA: Yes I was! >:C
ALEXIS: In any case, that’s true. We’ve never had a Corridor that was completely whole. The Break symbolizes a lot of things, primarily our lack of comprehension as to the whole of our world.
CASS: It’s a literal break across the middle of our universe, dumbass. What did you think it meant?
ALEXIS: There’s also a world outside the Corridor, but its actual existence wasn’t confirmed until recently and we haven’t had the chance to explore it properly yet.
* What are the physics like? Will-based? Hard physics like this world?
ALEXIS: As we’ve covered before in our Journal, the physics of the Corridor are flexible. Each member of the Working Title gets a realm, wherein they are the lawmakers, but all realms have to adhere to a Common Code.
CASS: Jesus f*ck, Alex, you’re boring. Basically this code says that you can f*ck around with gravity and teleporting and whatnot, but you can’t dick about with things like time and causality and stuff.
ALEXIS: Because those are all things a conscious mind needs to maintain continuity of consciousness, and to make sense of events passing as a whole. In a world of conscious entities, Time and Authentication are key.
CASS: neeeeeeeeeerd
ALEXIS: We have no solid information as to the world outside the Corridor yet.
* Is there an economy / ruling body / etc? Basically a political structure.
ALEXIS: There’s a constitution I’m working on in order to iron out ambiguities in our laissez-faire kind of governance, but since we have so few members most conflicts can be sorted out in face-to-face interactions. We don’t generally have too many.
CASS: I’m in charge!
ALEXIS: Cass is nominally in charge, as primary fronter. Ugh.
CASS: [chanting] First among equals! First among equals! Cass for President!
ANNA: Cass for President! Anna for Vice-President!
ALEXIS: We don’t have a president, you two – [descends into grumbling]
* How do system members communicate in-world?
CASS: We talk to each other, duh.
ALEXIS: It’s kind of more complicated than that. We have a kind of – ugh – psychic link, as much as I hate that phrasing. Maybe it’s better to say that we can communicate to each other by either talking directly in-world, or by sending a thought their way. Cass, I’d really like to implement a system which explains this better. Like bloody phones, for chrissakes.
CASS: You can have your phones when you dethrone me from the President’s office!
ANNA: And me from the Vice-President’s office! >:D
[ALEXIS buries face in hands]
* Do you have books/videos/internet/libraries?
CASS: We have books. I’ve never really looked into them that much, since generally they don’t say anything. Alex doesn’t like it.
ALEXIS: On one level, it’s comforting because they’re not externalities. I can rationalize that our system is contained and isolated. On another hand, it worries me that apparently we don’t store the written word in this brain.
CASS: Even things that we write and prepare in-world aren’t so much a mess of words as they are impressions and bits of meaning.
ALEXIS: Proto-words, if you will. The sort of thing that needs to be translated to actual language before it can be conveyed to someone out-system.
CASS: Our technology, like the conference room intercom, tends to work on an ‘it just works, okay’ kind of premise. Or… not work, when it comes to the intercom. What is that thing even for?
ALEXIS: All conference rooms have one!
CASS: One day we’ll decide what it’s for and we’ll use it that way.
* In general, what’s it like living in that world?
CASS: Like being a part of a dysfunctional family, I guess… We’ve all been around for a fair while, and we get along. It’s kind of like meatspace life, except we don’t have to eat or travel intervening distances or obey the laws of physics.
ALEXIS: We sleep. We wake. We live life.
STEPHEN: I do my best to keep us focused on the physical world, and to take care of our collective health. We lack strength in both the capacities of physical and mental health, and my life in this system is focused around the building of the same.
ANNA: Life is… like an adventure is the way I see it! It’s not just outside but in here, too! I set goals for myself and for Cass, and I guess… I guess we’re never really going to run out of things to do :3
FRANK: Not havin’ been part of life all that much, I’m not sure what I have to say about it. Suppose I’m still tryin’ to find my feet, learn how to get by, figure out what my role really is in this whole shenanigan clusterf***.
* Anything else you want to add.
ALEXIS: I guess I’d like to add – well, reiterate – that our system’s world is still mutable and we’re making new discoveries all the time. So all this might be outdated tomorrow, though I don’t think that’ll be the case. Still, I guess I’ll stamp this with the fact that this was the state of the Working Title, 23-11-15.
CASS: That was so unnecessary, I don’t even know where to start.
ALEXIS: Nyeh.
“On the Corridor”
-Working Title Productions, 2015
Miaii
Well, we have five (or more) distinct innerworlds, so we’ll try to answer for all (briefly). And we’ll throw in some info on the world next door too. 🙂
Our Primary innerworld is where the primary seven of us exist, and most everyone we create, too, except fictives. It has multiple planes of existence and is rather complicated dimensionally, though most parts work the same way, generally.
The Metadynamic worlds are the places where our fictives live, and are usually copies of their worlds.
The Simulation system is a purely at-will world where our simulation people live, and basically works like super imagination.
Transdimensional travelers live in copies of their worlds too, although all a part of Alex’s subsystem, which also has it’s own internal front space.
Our Dream World only exists at night, but is very interesting, complex, and enigmatic. We still don’t know all about how it works.
And the Metaphysical realm is what’s just next door – if we step through the door out of our system, that’s where we end up. Note that this place feels (and we think it is) outside our system, so it’s debatable if this really counts as an ‘inner’world.
* What’s the general character of your other-world? (A planet, a starship, etc)
Primary: An infinite plane, dark blue, with a floor and gravity – everything else at will. There’s also a airplane-cockpit-style fronting space, where we sit when we’re fronting.
Metadynamic: These worlds are copies of our fictive’s homes, so anime-style cities, majestic canyons, etc.
Simulation: Whatever is desired, so pretty much anything.
Transdimensional: Again, copies of our transdimensional traveler’s homes, so everywhere from cities, to planets, and even dimensions beyond reason.
Dream World: Mostly city-like, although there is some country and other, more exotic locations. Highly non-linear, though.
Metaphysical: An infinite void, no gravity, air, or stars, like deep space.
* What are the physics like? Will-based? Hard physics like this world?
Primary: At a base level, seemingly similar to the outerworld, but it’s basically totally at-will, so we can make/create/destroy pretty much anything we want with no limits.
Metadynamic: Usually the same physics as the original worlds.
Simulation: Whatever the simulation calls for, so anywhere from normal physical laws, to completely nonsensical stuff.
Transdimensional: The same physics of the original worlds (mostly physical, although some defy definition.)
Dream World: A special blend of dream physics we don’t entirely understand yet. Highly changeable, and places lead to other places in strange ways. Also has more dimensions, at least 5 or 6. (And other interesting things like anything you can see through can be walked through, etc.)
Metaphysical: At a base level, identical to the outerworld, however, this can be changed/reprogrammed, and all powers/abilities still work there as well.
* Is there an economy / ruling body / etc? Basically a political structure.
Primary: There’s a certain hierarchy of decision-making and authorization, but only for very important things, otherwise normally no.
Metadynamic: Not really.
Simulation: Nope.
Transdimensional: Only if the travelers had one originally, so sometimes, but rarely.
Dream World: Yes, although it’s still somewhat of a mystery to us. Nozomi (our dream world native/emissary) talks with the council/government sometimes, though.
Metaphysical: Not yet.
* How do system members communicate in-world?
Primary: Generally psychic/thought communication, although we can talk with physical voices too.
Metadynamic: Generally physical voices.
Simulation: Depends upon the current state of the world.
Transdimensional: Generally physical voices as well.
Dream World: Mostly normal speech, although thought transmission can occur.
Metaphysical: Currently only psychic/thought communication, as there’s no air. (Although there are sounds sometimes. Strange. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
* Do you have books/videos/internet/libraries?
Primary: Not really.
Metadynamic: Not really.
Simulation: Not really.
Transdimensional: Sometimes, it varies.
Dream World: Yes, but they work very differently than one might expect.
Metaphysical: Not yet. 😛
* In general, what’s it like living in that world?
Primary: Really nice! No limits (and being able to make skyscrapers appear out of thin air) means it’s a ton of fun, and being indestructible has a lot of perks!
Metadynamic: Everyone likes their home, although we’re working on a way for them to travel outside their worlds. Not possible yet, though.
Simulation: A ton of fun, and everyone in the simulation system enjoys their existence too, even if it’s pretty random.
Transdimensional: Definitely nice here too, plenty of opportunities to meet others from across the multiverse. People here do head back to their home occasionally as well.
Dream World: The dream people all like it (although admittedly, nearly all of them have no idea anywhere else exists), and only one (Nozomi) has followed us out so far.
Metaphysical: A place with a lot of potential! It’s pretty strange still, but it’s getting a lot nicer. 🙂
* Anything else you want to add.
Not really, unless there are questions. We’re not really sure how well this list format worked out, but don’t know any obvious way to explain all this better. :/
House of Chimeras
* What’s the general character of your other-world? (A planet, a starship, etc)
Our innerworld takes the form of a wilderness – a mostly forested land by the sea. The forest is lush and green from mild weather and frequent precipitation while the sea gently slopes downward with sandy bottoms and small coral reefs. Plant and animal life is similar in terms of wildlife for example, but some of the details are a bit different. For one, the most of the wildlife is from North American regions, but some species are what are now long extinct. Another example is that our moon is several time larger (at least in appearance to the viewer) than the Earth’s moon, and several stars in the sky in our innerworld are so bright they can be seen easily even during the day (if they aren’t obstructed by thick clouds) plus their placement in the sky are not like Earth‘s view. Those and other details make it a fair bit different from Earth in some ways even though its still very Earth-like.
* What are the physics like? Will-based? Hard physics like this world?
Sort of hard-physics but allows for fanatical acts within our innerworld’s own rules and laws. So its own physics rather than the physics of this reality. For some examples, there is wildlife in our innerworld. If one is killed for food, at right before dawn they come back to life. For another example, several of us can change into a more humanoid form, but none of us can change into a nonhuman form that isn’t our species.
* Is there an economy / ruling body / etc? Basically a political structure.
We have a sort of political structure. Those of the Lion’s Head group are the people are the ones who are most likely to lead the way as far as decisions outworld. They are the one’s who have a strong impulse to protect our system. They are the final decision makers over things like coming out to people, things concerning our job and classes, and so on. Its also their job to teach anyone who might front or want to front what the rules are of fronting and what is what. Those of the Goat’s Head group are the people are the ones who are most likely to lead the way as far as decisions inworld. They are the ones who make sure the system rules are fair to all and also make sure all in the system are getting along. They are the one’s in charge of having the final word on if our system is open to new members via walk-ins or whatnot. Also when it comes to new or returning members its their job to get them to understand everything in the system. Those of the Snake’s Head group are the people are the ones who are most likely to lead the way as far as decisions on spiritual matters. They also most often the priests/priestess of their religious beliefs. They are the counselors and guides for those in the system who need some advise or someone to talk to. Over all that, we basically function in a direct democracy where everyone has a voice/vote in important matters.
* How do system members communicate in-world?
Due to most of our system being nonhuman in some way we can’t simply speak English words out of our months at each other. Instead we communicate to each other through our minds. We refer to this as our “mental network” when talking about it. Through this mental network, we can talk to anyone in our system wherever they may be in our innerworld. Plus we can either talk to certain people alone or let a number (or everyone) in the system hear what is being said. Plus, we can not only send thoughts compressed into words but also emotions, images, and memories through our mental network as well.
* Do you have books/videos/internet/libraries?
We have a full library full of books. We do not have technology like computers, televisions, etc however.
* In general, what’s it like living in that world?
A lot like living in the middle of nowhere wilderness. However, given most of us are nonhuman, this suits us perfectly. For those that are human or very humanoid they do have very nice homes to live in. There are lots of eatable plants (apple trees, all kinds of berry bushes, and so much more) and non-headmate animals to hunt for everyone. So its kind of like an idealized/romantic version of living in the wilderness.