sometimes, when we dream

Daydream: Sundered World

Everyone wanted to be a badass at some point.

When I first saw The Matrix, I begged my parents for weeks to let me buy airsoft pistols. When I finally got my hands on some, I spent weeks in a pair of cheap sunglasses and the darkest clothing I owned (my parents drew the line at buying me a trenchcoat) and pretended that I was fighting off hordes of Agents. Later on, it was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, then James Bond in general, then V for Vendetta, then The Dark Knight, then…

Okay, I never really grew out of wanting to be a badass. But even if other people didn’t act out the characters the way I did, most people at least fondly remember a few of the good one-liners and quote them back and forth at parties. Some people write fanfiction (and not just of the pornographic kind!), and others go forth to craft their own characters, drawing them and selling them for profit or putting them into their own novels or movies. While many of these make for great escapes, a great many people probably still wonder what it would be like to jump out of the closest window, effortlessly (and completely unrealistically) landing thirty feet below, then outrunning a tank while gunning down hundreds of faceless soldiers before riding a broken plane wing as a surfboard up to an island base to take out the Big Bad himself.

This daydream was about what happens when that sort of fantasy becomes reality.

Overnight, some sort of ‘reality bomb’ hits, dismantling society as we know it. When you wake up, you find yourself in the same bedroom as before, but something seems off. You stumble out of bed, grumbling as you head for the kitchen to get your morning cup of coffee. You trip over the shoes you shucked last night, stumble, and put your arms out as you feel yourself start to fall. The ground rushes up at you…

…and you automatically tuck yourself into a ball, rolling easily before bounding back onto your feet, continuing your walk towards the kitchen.

Wait, what?

Sure enough, the world has changed. Chunks of civilization have been torn up, and much of the population seems to have vanished. Those who are left, however, are the dreamers, the roleplayers, the writers and artists - the creative folk who built lives and worlds. Each person has subsequently woken up as the character they identified with.

Of course, such a world couldn’t be ideal, or this would make for a pretty dull daydream. Some people - the twinks, the Mary Sues, and the obnoxious godmodding roleplayers - are their character in appearance only, good for little more than show and perhaps a little extra strength if they played something like a dragon. Those who crafted intriguing kingdoms and empires or daredevil adventurers, however, might find that their new gymnast’s abilities are only the start to what they’re capable of. This sudden new power means that while there would be benevolent characters who seek to rebuild civilization, there are many others who realize that places like gun shops and military bases are now abandoned and ripe for the plundering.

Thus, the daydream turns into a high-powered game between heroes and villains with strange and unusual powers. An ‘evil hideout’ might be an abandoned apartment complex with magical detectors (supplied by a sorcerer from a D&D campaign) and chaingun turrets for defense. (someone was an engineer in a cyberpunk story universe) The head honcho rides a red dragon and has the ability to call down lightning against foes (an artist who loved drawing tyrants and villains). Likewise, a benevolent town could have a demigod of civilization who replenishes the general store with new supplies with a wave of their hand, an architect who can restore broken buildings by drawing the undamaged structure, and a militia of one; a girl capable of splitting off into dozens of copies of herself (with the real version retaining super strength).

Of course, that’s just on the local scale. Imagine a crew of vikings who capture and sell slaves in order to have their ship converted into a mechanized walker that terrorizes the countryside. Upon taking on a villain that’s just too tough for them, they are pressed into an army lead by the Sultan of Ulgriboth, whose flying castle is protected by his squadron of fighter jets and wyverns. The Sultan eventually makes his way to the holy stronghold known as the Arch of Infinity, where he takes on celestial archangels riding alongside turncoat air pirates, who deserted their villainous captain in order to strike back against evil. The possibilities are quite limitless.

I was pretty upset when I ‘woke up’ from this dream, because I remember running from the top of a huge steel wall in order to jump aboard a flying fortress. My mission was to infiltrate the gigantic fortress and steal back the thunderstaff that powered much of the Arch of Infinity…

Hey, guys

Hi, I’m Keys. You might know me.

Some time ago, I decided that my imagination is a totally awesome place. While most people coasted through school texting one another or playing games on their fancy calculators, I daydreamed and scrawled notes about what I was thinking about. You might see a page or two of notes on how the Roman Empire rose and fell, then six or seven about how cats rise and revolt against the human race, subsequently taking over the world and using us as entertainment the same way we used to do the them. Then, of course, there would be another three pages about my inability to understand how chemistry works, followed by a dozen of a detailed gateway that allows people to travel between dimensions, and how an immortal might visit thousands of worlds in hundreds of different guises through this portal.

Either way, this blog is dedicated to the strange universes that my mind likes to visit, and the various daydreams I’ve gone through when I should have been working. Some may be written from the perspective of the adventurer that happens to be traveling through the world I’ve imagined, while others might be a simple question, such as what would happen if it turned out that cats decided to take over the world. Hopefully, I can entertain those who follow with my random daydreams.

Have fun!