YWS Dimension

Welcome to the all-new YWS Dimension. A cyber-reality in which worlds crafted by words happen in a safe yet realistic enviroment. These places are known as storybooks. However, you are idle, not in any of these storybooks, just lounging about in the infinite number of lounges YWS can create; from humid jungles to freezing polar wastes; from a busy industrial city to a cozy country cottage. Talking and observing the cybernetic matrix as the worlds continue to move for entertainment. Your going to be here for a long time, so enjoy your stay and socialise with the other members!

You may only have one character in this chit-chat, which is you. Not literally you, but who you picture your account to actually be; a person not quite like you, but like your writing style. You can feel free to switch talk rooms at any time, or create a new one if you wish, however please abide by the following rules:

No swearing
No excessive violence or killing other peoples characters (For you will suffer the power of the divine justice, known only as Nate)
No one-liners (everybody hates them and they clutter up the chit-chat)
No sex (romance allowed)
Please write in 1st person
And have fun!

DNX away...

DarknecrosisX

The penguins slide down the slopes happily, in preparation for some fishing. I sit on the cold ice fountain, wearing thick clothing to block out the unbearable bitterness of the antarctic wind. I look around, bored and slighty reminiscent. For all the years I had spent here being killed was never any fun, but then again it was a change from the usual in storybooks. A penguin waddles over to me, squeakng with delight as it gulps down the fish in its bill. I pat it on the head and start to talk to it. "Hey there, not many people around huh?" I laugh, my stubbled jaw snapping shut as the saliva in my mouth begins to freeze. My emerald green eyes stumble over to a guest, the familiar bland white body stumbling around. I sigh.

artsy;

I pulled my thin jacket around me. When I had imagined being alone to think for a while without much human contact, this wasn't what I exactly had in mind. I hated the cold, and they said I'd be able to change scenary with words, but my teeth were chattering so loudly and my appendages were so stiff from the cold that I couldn't concentrate enough to form anything in my head, much less a grammatically correct sentence. Something slammed into my leg and knocked me off my center of balance. I fell hard onto the thick ice floor beneath me. I groaned in pain and sat up slowly, noticing a fountain and someone sitting on it...

Aquila

I lounged in a deck chair, which I had pulled off to the side, and watched the chaos around me. The cruise ship Mockingbird was fancy and luxurious--literally heaven on earth--but, as the character I was stalking had pointed out earlier, it had some serious design flaws...the most recently acquired one being the gaping hole in its side. By now, all the passengers had succumbed to panic, and were running every which way in a mad scramble to get to the top deck. I watched as my character tried in vain to direct traffic, getting pushed around by packs of frantic passengers. First officer was normally a good job, but he didn't look so happy now.

He disappeared into the crowd, so I looked around at the rest of the ship. This deck had a pool, a spa, and a cute little cafe, all overrun with panicked packs of passengers. The only calm spot was a five-foot circle around my deck chair. And...another circle, around another deck chair, with another person sitting in it. I tilted my head to the side, wondering which storybook the other person was in. Because of the nature of the network, two people could be sitting right next to each other and see completely different things.

"Hey," I said to the other person. "What are you watching?"

DNX

The polar ice caps are starting to bore me, sure I prefer the cold to the hot, but sliding penguins lose their novelty after an hour or so. It kind of dampens the fun when you realise none of it's real, but I guess the point is not to dwell on that fact too much.

I stand up and look at the sun (which told the same time no matter where you were, excluding storybooks), and notice that the hour was nearing midday; time for lunch. My mind begins to wander as to what type of cuisine I shall dine this lunchtime, I sure could go for another one of those Auh-Quloloacas on the planet Tryphon, now that was good eating.

An anomaly appears in front of me, and I step forth.

"Specify desired location"

The Walnut Jester tavern, chapter 3 of 'In the Land of Druevern," I reply.

A flash of light and a vacuuming sensation pulls me from one world and tosses me straight into another. I find myself sitting on a comfortable bar stool, across my own creations: Tempus and Kerran, as they introduce themselves. I almost mouth every single word as they are spoken, but decide against it; there was something about their voices that I didn't quite capture in words, another fascinating part of the YWS matrix. Works were now realistic, and you could star as, although merely a background character, a spectator of the phenomenal moments imagined by other writers.

I sit back and sip my cider, as the grumpy farmer Traddus barges in.
"This is my favourite bit," I smile.

MrsED

I swivel in my chair and look across the room. About ten feet away, at the other end of a cockpit, someone I vaguely recognise is sitting at one of the science stations, looking at me in a brightly interested way.

"I'm on Bolivar. They're trying to get the engines started. Where are you?" I notice that they're wearing a summery outfit, as if on vacation or lounging by a pool.

Suddenly, the cockpit goes blank. I'm at the end of the story so far.

"Wait, never mind," I sigh. "YWS portal," I command. I smile at the individual. "You look like you're somewhere relaxing. Can I come there?"

Aquila

"I'm on Bolivar," the person replied. "They're trying to get the engines started. Where are you? Wait, never mind--" The person's image flickered a bit--their storybook must have stopped.

The person muttered a few commands--too garbled for me to hear--and then materialized in the other deck chair again. "You look like you're somewhere relaxing," she (?) said. "Can I come there?"

"Sure," I replied. "It's called Shipwrecked. Although it's not so relaxing now...just watch out in case people start throwing things, or something. I don't know how the network handles projectiles."

As the person adjusted the network's settings, I searched for my character again. Water had begun to spill over the side of the deck, so his pants and coat were soaking wet. As he tried to herd the panicking passengers, he slipped, and fell right on his face, his hat popping off his head.

Spoiler

Yes, my character's a girl. What about you?

"Shipwrecked," I said. I stepped through and looked around at the panicking, sinking ship. There was an open deckchair and I settled into it. I felt a little out of place in my space jumpsuit. I looked at the other person, who appeared to be meditating on the movements of a particular character.

"I think I recognise you," I said. "You're Aquila something, right? I think I've see you in some of the other storybooks. You go to a lot of different ones, don't you? What's the plot of this one?"

Spoiler

I'm a girl, too.

Aquila

"It's sort of like a cross between Titanic and Gilligan's Island," I explained. "The ship got caught in a storm and ran into something, so now there's a huge hole in the hull, and everyone's panicking..."

"Ah," she said. She sat down in the deck chair, glancing at her spacesuit for a moment. "Are you watching someone?" she asked.

"Yep," I replied, pointing to my character. "That's Will. He's an officer. I'm thinking of starting a novella with him, so I wanted to test him out."

She indicated a man with a first mate's insignia, who was jamming a hat on his head and directing the mobs of traffic.

"He's kind of cute," I said, smiling. She grinned back at me.

"Think so?"

"Yeah." I found there was a hardly-touched lemonade in the deck chair's attached cupholder. I took a sip and watched the scene: the boat's hull sinking slowly under the waves; a mother with her baby running by frantically, not seeming to see us at all; screaming throngs pushing against poor Will.

"You came up with this cheerful little scene all on your own?" I wanted to know.

Aquila

"Well, this isn't my storybook," I hedged, "but I've been doing the most posting for this segment. There's going to be a similar scene in Will's story, so I thought I should practice." I flinched reflexively as one of the characters took a tumble, narrowly missing our bubble of calm.

"I wonder where his friend went," I muttered to myself. "I made his friend from my story into an NPC," I explained. "He's...somewhere...I don't know. He runs off a lot."

The girl in the other deck chair nodded. "You joined Bolivar, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yep," I answered. "I'm the only human so far."

MrsED

I winced. "You and a couple others are the only practically anything so far," I replied. "That's why I had to leave; it blanked out. But I knew I recognised you from somewhere--I thought it was cool that you chose just a normal person. Woah, look out!"

A young man came flying past, crying hysterically, and flung himself overboard. I tried to see over the edge of the boat without getting out of my comfortable chair. "Who's he? Anyone important?"

She glanced over at the man, who was swimming furiously. "I don't think so. I don't recognise him."

"Huh. How do you like Bolivar?" I continued after a moment. "I'm hoping it gets off the ground."

Aquila

"I love Bolivar," I answered immediately. "I love sci fi of any kind. I really hope it gets out of its space dock, too." MrsED laughed.

"If you ever need some terrible astronomy puns to lighten the mood, I'm your girl," I continued, ducking under a spray of water. "I have to warn you, though, they really are terrible. Ah--should we go somewhere a little more peaceful?"

"Are you done here? I mean, I guess you could come back to it."

She nodded.

"Bolivar's quiet, but we'd have to loop it. I'm glad you like it, by the way--Sci-Fi is one of my favourite genres too. Anyway, most of the other places we could go would be either fights to the death or schools full of vampires or something," I said thoughtfully. "Do you know any others?"

Aquila

"I wouldn't mind Bolivar," I said. "I should study, anyway. I've been out of the loop for the past few days..."

Spoiler

Sorry for the short posts. Out of town, on my phone until Tuesday night.