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Tuesday, December 8, 2015

If Characters Became Real, Vol. I

In books, plays, movies, TV shows, our imaginations, and many other places, there are fictional characters. These characters live out fascinating lives, sometimes in alternate realities, different time periods, or in fictional worlds.
But what if these fictional characters were to end up in the real world? How might they handle this sudden change, especially if the real world is entirely different from the reality they live in? It's a rather interesting thing to ponder, and could lead to all sorts of crazy things if it were to occur. In this series of posts, we will begin to explore the many 'what if' scenarios associated with fictional characters becoming real.
If anyone has suggestions for future disasters scenarios, please let me know in the comment section below.


A young woman feverishly packs her bags. Grabbing her immense amounts of luggage, she begins heading toward the door.
"Where are you going?" her mother asks.
"Well, one of my characters found the portal that leads to Earth. Considering that he comes from a place where dragons, griffins, elves, and other such things are common, and the culture and technology is different, he kind of, well, stands out. Anyway, I have to head over to England and bail him out of the insane asylum."
"What? Have you lost your mind? You're not going anywhere!"
"Sorry, Mom, gotta run. Bye, love you!" the woman says, quickly racing out the door before anyone can stop her.

At the mental hospital, the woman is led by one of the employees toward a gangling fifteen-year-old boy, who is playing cards with another of the patients.
"Hello, Riley." the woman says.
The boy looks up, then grins widely. "Where've you been? I haven't seen you in ages!"
"I know." the woman replies dryly. "After the main characters left, I didn't see any more of you. Of course, I wasn't expecting you to end up—here." she says, gesturing vaguely at their surroundings.
"Rather different here in your world." Riley comments. "Everyone acts different, and they all think I'm mad when I talk about elves, dragons, and that sort. And there's some rather interesting things here I've never even heard of! There's this curious little box with a sort of window in it, and it shows all sorts of things. Think they called it a television, or a telly, or something. Don't quite understand how it works, but it's fascinating! There was this one story, called 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe', 'cept the others called it a movie. This one girl, Lucy, was-"
The woman held up a hand to stop him. "I'd love to discuss this further, but we kind of need to get you out of here."
"You serious? I'm in the middle of a great game! I've won at least at twenty times so far!" Riley says.
"That's because he cheats." the other patient grumbles.
"Me? I do no such thing!" Riley says innocently.
"Look, I've been traveling for hours, and I'm tired. I really want to get home again so I can write that scene where the main character learns how to make a snare trap, a very useful skill for him, by the way. So get your stuff ready, 'cause I'm bailing you out, with or without your things." the woman threatens.
"Guess I'll have to end this game early. Sorry 'bout that." Riley says, setting down his cards.
"Thank God." the other patient says.
Meanwhile, the woman was talking to one of the employees at the mental hospital. "You see, he's my younger brother, half-brother really. He's always been a bit... eccentric. He sort of lives in his own little world. Please, let me take him back to his home. He doesn't belong here. He's very sensitive, a place like this, he just couldn't handle it."
"Sensitive? He seems to be having a marvellous time here. Never seen anyone so easy-going in my life."
"That's just how he copes with stress. Last year he was in a place like this, and he had a mental breakdown. It took him months to recover from it. Please, sir, let me take him out of here. I promise we'll keep a better eye on him in the future."
The man scratches his head and thinks for a long moment. "Well, I suppose if you can promise there won't be a re-occurrence of this, and if you fill out a few forms, I think we could let him go."
"Really! Oh, thank you, sir! You have no idea..."
"Just come with me," the man replies, "and I'll show you what you need to sign."

"You remember how you got here, right? I'm not really sure where the portal is." the woman says later to Riley as they walk.
"What do you mean, you don't know where the portal is? You're the writer here."
"Well, I haven't exactly developed every little thing about the fantasy world, and where all the portals appear on that world and Earth."
"I think it's somewhere 'round here. Thing is, I'm not really how I ended up going through in the first place."
"Yeah, sometimes the portal opens up without anyone specifically telling it to open."
"I appreciated you getting me out of there, by the way." Riley says. "It's nearly impossible to sneak out of there, and I start to miss being out at sea after a while."
"Don't mention it. Of course, all the lies I told to convince them to let you out will come back to haunt me later."
"What exactly did you say to them, anyway? Must've been a quite a story."
"I'll explain it to you later. With jet lag and sleep deprivation, it's amazing my brain still functions at all."
"Say, I think this is where I came through the portal." Riley says.
"Just don't come back to Earth again, alright? The plane tickets to get here cost me a small fortune."
"All right." Riley says, nodding.
"Now, you're not carrying anything from Earth, are you? I don't want you keeping anything that's not from your own world."
"Course not! Though I might have brought the television if I could carry it in my bag."
"Very funny. Come on, let's go through the portal."
"Ah, how I've missed this place." Riley says as they arrive in the fantasy world. "Even the air's different here."
"That's because there's less global warming and pollution."
"Well, thanks again for helping me out. Guess you should be getting home, though."
"Yeah. I'm looking forward to getting some sleep. See you later, Riley."
"Bye. Good luck on your travels." Riley says, waving goodbye as he walks off.
"Wait a second... is that a digital watch? Riley, I told you not to bring anything from Earth! RILEY!"

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