It's about an insecure young man with a pornography addiction. He used to have big dreams about becoming a filmmaker, but he has long given up on doing anything productive with his life.
One day, however, he was unknowingly given the powers to manipulate other realities through what is supposedly a virtual reality machine (it's actually a dimension-travel machine). What this machine does is basically put the user's consciousness in a virtual simulation based on TV shows, movies, or in this case, anime. He can be anyone he wants in the simulated reality, and he can manipulate the reality itself. In other words, he's pretty much a god. Of course, he thinks that he's just interacting with fictional characters in a simulation, not knowing that he's toying with people's lives in other dimensions.
Naturally, being as insecure as he is, he put the people in his simulations through some rather immoral situations. I won't go into details, but let's just say he's a pretty sick man, even if he has never committed any crime in real life.
This has consequences very soon in the story, of course, as the 'fictional characters' he tortured came into his dimension and seek revenge. When he told them that he thought it was all just a simulation, they told him that they knew, before forcing him to work for them to stop the plans of the one who was supplying these machines to losers like him all over the universe. Because hey, if something were to happen and these guys are killed by the supposedly 'fictional characters', who's gonna care about a bunch of losers?
The rest of the story takes place with this bunch of unlikely partners working together to stop the plans of the mastermind behind this plot. Little do they know, the truth behind this scheme is far more than just some sadistic game to torture people, and when they learn the truth, it's going to make them question their own existence... Will our heroes go mad from the truth?
How did you come up with the story?
When I first thought of this story a decade ago, I just wanted a story where fictional characters come to life. As time passed by, it became something bigger, and I started incorporating these themes into the story, particularly one that involves the Japanese people's escapism through the use of technology and anime, one of the symptoms (not causes, mind you) of the population decline that's occurring in the country.
Many years ago, I also struggled with my own pornography addiction, I'm not going to lie about that. Even though I've long quit the bad habit out of disgust, I still want to talk about the subject through my story. In particular, I want to show just how low a person's life can get when he hits rock bottom and have nothing left in his life to pursue, no goals, aspirations, or even any interests at all aside from numbing himself in acts of escapism. I myself have experienced such spiritual depression even after my departure from pornography, particularly in the last few years. It's a terrible feeling when you have nothing to live for, and I just want to write about that.
Another theme I wanted to write about is a rather controversial one - rape culture, as well as how rape is taken lightly in fiction. In fictional stories, you would see rape victims being empowered survivors by the end of the story. While surviving your rape and become better for it is a good thing, I feel like they didn't take the matter serious enough and didn't show just how painful or scarring the trauma can be. It's something that sticks with you for the rest of your life, and romanticizing that is just an insult to real life victims. I also wanted to explore the prevalent sexism that remains in our culture, as well as the over-sexualized nature of anime itself, and how women are portrayed as sex objects in many anime.
Last but not least, I wanted to write a story about Sayaka Miki, the character from the anime, "Madoka Magica". She's a wonderful character with a sense of justice, and she used to bear a naive view of the world that I once shared. With this story, I kinda want to use it as an excuse to write something about her.
What kind of writing partner are you looking for?
Someone patient but experienced in writing. Someone willing to teach me how to write well while helping me co-write the story. In other words, someone compassionate with lots of free time.
How much of a commitment will this project involve?
My expectations aren't that strict (not that an amateur writer like me has any right to impose stringency anyway), so I'm really just looking for someone to help me out twice per week or so over the next couple of months. All I want to do is just get this story out there so that I could write more stories in the future, as I don't want to be stuck writing one story for the rest of my life, so all I'm looking for is a commitment that will help get my story done.
Do you have plans regarding posting it on YWS?
I've already posted a 'prototype' of sorts called "Dead Inside" on YWS. Depending on whether I get a co-writer or not, I might not post future stories on YWS because the standards seem a bit high for someone of my writing skills. I might post it on FanFiction.net instead.
Anything else we need to know?
Nothing else that I haven't already said. I have great ideas, but my execution sucks. I'm hoping someone could help me change that.
