Shifters
One-shot written at night on my phone. A universe with potentially far too much ideas stuck in my mind. : )
Shifters.. How to explain.. I'm one of them. We're relatively normal people, with.. one minor difference.. We shift to another continuity on completely random intervals.
Continuity? Yeah. We're fictional. The world we live in is fictional. We have the uncanny ability to recognize who the main characters are.
Doesn't even have to be written stories. We've.. noticed a bunch of little awkward details that have let us to surmise that we could just as easily be in a cartoon, anime or even a movie. First one is easy- cartoons tend to bend the laws of reality. Whenever I shift, I tug at my skin. If it doesn't hurt or if it stretches, I'm in a cartoon.
Movies tend to have props. Fake backgrounds, smoke machines, explosives, all placed in locations you wouldn't normally expect them. Unfortunately, we live in the story, so even if we see and notice it's a movie, we can't 'walk off the set'. For us, there is no set, just an awkward, often miniature world. Same goes for when we're in a tv show.
And I've once been in a video game.. spent hours trying to flee from a guy with heavy weaponry. Even if I know it's fake, the bullets still kill me.. We've lost many a shifter before due to them dying.
We live in fiction, after all. If the main story is about a kid who kills his entire class, and one of us finds themselves in the position of classmate, the story demands they die.
Fortunately, we have a way to fight back. The story doesn't like us interfering, so if we change something important, the story needs to compensate or be edited. Sometimes the world itself just pauses around us, trying to reassert itself.
And.. we have the ability to temporary copy abilities, weapons or even specific peculiarities of people.. as long as they're unnatural for us.
The main goal for a shifter is, after all, trying to find the story they belong in. But even then.. some shifters can't accept the reality they're meant to be in.. but that's a different story.
First I want to tell you mine.
Author's Notes
Originally deemed a 'Work in Progress', after being typed entirely on my phone..
Fairly sure I published on deviantArt on the same day, namely one February 7, 2014.
Today, it goes up on Toyhou.se.
Additional notes as asked for here, by TwilightSparkleFairy.
| 1. You say "if they find themselves in the position of a classmate" so do they replace characters in the story or are they simply observers? | Both. It can be completely random whether they're just 'one of the background characters' or if they end up as actually involved in the story. To follow up, it's also random whether they replace characters already there or if they just appear one day and the story just fixes itself into that supposedly 'they've always been there'. None of the characters around know the difference anyway, only other Shifters would notice. |
| 2. Is there a rule about interacting with main characters? | There is no such rule. Shifters are free to interact, sometimes the story even WANTS them to interact. |
| 3. Are they allowed to bring things to the next story? Does whatever they're holding/wearing transport over? | No. They do not bring items along. The story gives them appropriate clothing for the moment they arrive in. They can, however, bring people with. |
| 4. Do they transport only into books, or into any written thing? Is it maybe published stories/books? | Not even just 'any written thing'- Games, movies, books, technically even songs.. there's been cases of them finding themselves in fan fiction and a Shifter has even found themselves in a diary- as long as there is enough fiction, Shifters could end up in there. (The person writing the diary liked to exaggerate what happened during their day.) |
| 5. So how are they born and from whom? Do they just appear in a random story and then they must find the one in which they belong? Are they, then, actually a displaced main character? | There's three ways a new Shifter is born.. either as a child to a Shifter, (only one parent needs to be one,) or because they've been dragged from their story by another Shifter. Shifters can shift together simply by holding onto each other, so by extension, they could be touching a character who is not a Shifter and bring them along that way. It's possible they're a displaced main character as someone could take a main character out of their story. Children from Shifters usually tend to belong in the story of their parent, but they're also the ones who feel the most like they don't belong there. The last method is being written out of a story. A lot of Shifters are people whose role in a story has ended without them dying- although this is also completely random. |
| 6. They can copy things from people... do they do this to pretend to be certain people, or to fit in with the story? | They can only copy from characters within the story. This doesn't have to fit the story, but the story would reassert itself in that case. It's mostly for survival. If a Shifter is in a safe, slice of life environment, it's unlikely they'd use the ability. If the character they replace already has abilities, they would gain these abilities, as well as knowledge how to use them, upon arrival in the story. |
| 7. Can they read books and be familiar with a certain game or novel or something, or are they always new? | It's possible they could know the story, yes- there are plenty of stories in the media where there are actual comic books or games or even movies lying around. Brands are also exceedingly common due to product placement. |
| 8. Do they shift to random parts of stories/games? If so, what if they run into themselves from the past (if they come to the same place twice)? | Yes. They cannot run into themselves 'from the past', though. If they come to the same place twice, it's either a separate instance (like if it's the same game, movie or book, a separate instance is literally another copy of the game, movie or book) or it's in a different part of time. Yes, this does mean that if they've been there before, they could end up in a time BEFORE they were there last. Those are moments when they can guess when the next Shift occurs, as they'd need to be gone before their past selves catch up. |
| 9. Do they start as babies, then grow and die and such like normal humans? Oh, or are they normal humans until one day they Shift, and this happens randomly among people; some are just Shifters naturally? | See 5. Quick reminder that they don't actually have to be human. What race they are depends on the story, (think Mass Effect for example, plenty of alien races there) although human is indeed the most common. |
| 10. How exactly would the books edit themselves if they made a major change - would they simply remove the Shifter from them (what would that do to the Shifter?) or would they somehow change events? | If the change is too big, the story pauses the world around the Shifter. It's very likely the world will simply change things back to as they were.. but overall, changes are compensated for. Like a Shifter taking the main character's pen would change the story in the main character preferring to write with pencils or simply provide a new pen by having a character give it to them or the main character happened to have a second one in their bag. Or a Shifter purposely crashing the main character's car would have the main character somehow be unscathed and a friend happens to be there that gives them their ride and deals with the insurances and such. |
| 11. If they're in a cartoon or something animated, do they change to look animated according to the style of whatever it is? | Yes and No. It depends on the series. Cartoons / animations with 'realistic' depictions of people will often look realistic as well. This includes series like Steven Universe, Adventure Time, but also most Looney Tunes series.. even Animaniacs. Cause despite their cartoony look on television, they're supposed to depict realistic people. Only the really weird cartoons will stand out. As for physical changes, that too depends on their show. Most cartoon will make their body oddly malleable- think Looney Tunes. They're usually the safest in those situations, cause any serious physical injury would just be cartoony.. But series that depict more realistic circumstances obvious don't allow this. TL;DR if someone can legitimately get hurt in the series, they can in the world. This is more info than you asked for. :P |
| I did.. realize I kinda failed to properly answer 11, giving you somewhat of a different answer altogether: | The long story short is that if most creatures are depicted realistically, the Shifter's surroundings and the people will look normal to them. Again, series like Steven Universe or Gravity Falls- while they have obviously cartoon style humans, they're depicted realistically, even if exaggerated. To a Shifter, it would not seem strange. Being stuck in a series such as Chowder or Flapjack would seem odd to a Shifter, as most humans there dont seem to have very realistic depictions. (I was going to call out Gumball as well, but all the animal people seem to be sufficiently 'realistic'.. just the balloon creature seems weird, I guess.) |
| 12. If someone was reading a book and a Shifter was in it at the same time, what would the person reading see? Would the books change to describe the Shifter? | The story only changes from the Shifter's perspective. Anyone reading, watching or playing in 'The Real World' wouldn't be able to notice a change. |
| 13. What are the worlds of the books like? I suppose they sort of fade around the edges where the author has not described - do they? What would happen if a Shifter went and talked to a background character whose appearance is only described? Would they be actual people, despite not having written characters? | You are correct. It would be a fade to white, similar to how most books are black text on white backgrounds. Movies would be film sets, ending in darkness. Games have a similar fade to black once the 'game world' ends. As for undescribed background characters, they are actual people from the Shifter's perspective.. they always look the same to the same Shifter. But another Shifter could see an entirely different person. |
| 14. What happens when Shifters find their story - do they stop shifting? Can they still make changes to the world? | They stop shifting and lose their copying abilities. For the longest while, they're still aware of the world being fictional, but that fades eventually. Any changes they make to the world would be in-story, as they are part of it. And yes, before you ask, a 'former' Shifter can actually still shift away with someone else. |