Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Dimensia - A Journal of a Journey.

So this is a very interesting post. Back during high school, I came up with this idea called "Dimensia," which is a play on the words "dimension" and "dementia." The story revolves around a band of characters from other projects I had conceived of who travel to various worlds that I have also developed as they track down a character who can grant himself wishes. As a consequence for this character, every new wish he makes cancels the previous one. Since the character (whose name is "Markal") is a natural-born explorer and treasure hunter, he can't pass up this opportunity. So after a series of events, the others are forced to chase him across the multiverse.

This story branches off from one of my other projects during a key event. Markal is disqualified in a match against Marshall Hart during a preliminary round at the Earth Fighting Competition. In the standard timeline, he accepts disqualification and the series progresses as it normally would have. But in Dimensia, Markal makes a last-minute decision and wishes for the ability to open portals to other dimensions, in an attempt to suck Marshall in. Unfortunately, Markal gets sucked in first and Marshall falls in behind, followed by the young Jarvis, who considers Marshall to be his best friend, jumping in after them.

This divergence creates two timelines: one where the events of the worlds they come to transpire as they should and one where the worlds are affected by Markal's interference. This plot point forms the over-arching plot of the series.

In the second world they come to, they meet someone who gives them a journal in which to log their adventure. The joke is that anyone can access the journal at anytime from anywhere. It's treated as though it's an online message board, so the gags may be familiar to anyone who surfs Internet forums. So I've decided to post an entry each day. Jarvis is the "official journey chronicler," and being a child, his spelling is a bit skewed. As a result, you'll see interesting word spellings. Each entry is followed by commentary from the characters involved.

This world is full of bird puns. For instance, the peasants are pheasants, their monarch is a kingfisher, and Sir Jay wields a halberd.

Midevil Manbird World!

A midevil world of bird people. This is where we met Sir Jay, who was betrayed by King Fisher, who was manipulated by Buzz and Connie, who were double agents for the Cardinal! This is also where we met Owl, who gave us this journal.

Hey! I remember this place! It was fun!

Of course you remember it, we were just there. (Didn't you write the entry?)

Hey, who is writing this commentary?

I am.

Me, too.

Hmm...That still does not tell me who wrote the commentary. How about this: we write our names under our commentary, like so:
-Sir Jay of the Blue Clan

OK!
-Jarvis

That works.
-Super Cool

Hey, you guys are into this thing already?

Who said that?^
-Super Cool

Perhaps it were Young Jarvis?
-Sir Jay of the Blue Clan

I dident write it.
-Jarvis

It was me, Marshall! I wrote it!

Oh, Marshall. We were just talking about signing our names under our commentary.
-Super Cool

Wait, are we sure its Marshall?
-Jarvis

I cannot be certain.
-Sir Jay of the Blue Clan

It was* me.
-Marshall**

What does that sigmature say?
-Super Cool

It says 'Marshall', and it's signature, not sigmature.***
-Marshall

Welcome to the journal, Master Marshall.
-Sir Jay of the Blue Clan

Look, Jay--

Please refer to me as Sir Jay, Master Marshall.****
-Sir Jay of the Blue Clan

Look, Sir Jay, do you have to write out 'Sir Jay of the Blue Clan' every time you sign your name?
-Marshall

Of course! Otherwise, no one would know who wrote the message!
-Sir Jay of the Blue Clan

We already know who you are, a simple 'Sir Jay' would suffice!
-Marshall

Oh, I beg to differ, Master Marshall.
-Sir Jay of the Blue Clan

Well, you know who I am without me writing out 'Master Marshall of the Hart Clan', right?
-Marshall

Who is 'Master Marshall of the Hart Clan'?
-Super Cool

...I quit.
-Marshall

Man, Marshall needs to lighten up, he's too uptight.
-Super Cool

I believe the same, Master Super Cool.
-Sir Jay of the Blue Clan

Please, call me 'Super of the Cool Clan'.
-Super of the Cool Clan

What is the sense? I know you as 'Super Cool'.
-Sir Jay of the Blue Clan

*This is underlined in the text, but Blogger doesn't support underlining.
**He signs his name in cursive.
***The n and the m are underlined, respectively.
****Sir and Master should be underlined, as well.

12 comments:

AubrieAnne said...

I definately like the concept of different worlds and the idea of a person who can grant his own wishes, but once be grants a new one, it nixes the old. You could have a lot of fun with that.

I could also see it getting really complicated, especially when you have two storylines going on at the same time, with the same characters, just in different dimensions.

Of course, I'm on the outside looking in. In your head, it could be all straight forward.

Matt Dimitroff said...

Yes, the wishing offers a lot of fun opportunities, but it also presents a lot of complex paradoxes. Since the primary series isn't entirely developed, there's still room for improvement.

AubrieAnne said...

Thanks good to hear. It's kind of nice when things aren't fully figured out. It give the story room to manifest a bit on its own too.

Matt Dimitroff said...

Yes, and it is an idea that has been fermenting since the 11th grade. It's a largely humorous piece, spoofing certain popular animated television programs. The idea has faded in recent years because the idea was always intended for broadcast and since I've strayed from screenwriting, it won't be as easy to return to the medium or to adapt them to the more traditional style.

You might remember reading "Dude Ranch" in Roberson's class? That is a script draft from the original series.

shah wharton said...

Wow - its sounds great fun working all those elements out! My novel would sound confused if I were to try to explain it I think - but I totally know where its going. It difficult to appreciate the power of our imagination before it is interpreted by reason.

Shah .X

AubrieAnne said...

Yeah, I remember dude ranch. I didn't realize it was a part of something so large. What other animated series did you spoof off of?

Matt Dimitroff said...

Thanks, Shah! I embrace the chance to expound on my ideas (preferably in a text medium) as it not only allows me to share with people but helps me to organize them.

Yeah, Dude Ranch is an episode of an epic. The primary source material is the series Dragon Ball (before Dragon Ball Z) with sprinkles of other series. There's a character named Van Gogh who is described as a "post-adolescent evolved samurai tortoise" who's mentored by an anthropomorphic rat named "Master Sphincter."

AubrieAnne said...

Oh, ok. I never saw any of that. And I only saw scattered bits of Dragon Ball Z when my best friend was really into it. We watched that and Digimon quite religiously.

Matt Dimitroff said...

I was pretty into the second season of Digimon, but I never saw how it ended.

AubrieAnne said...

me either. Once they got rid of the original characters, they lost me.

Matt Dimitroff said...

At least they came back near the end.

Anonymous said...

Love the concept! Keep going with the idea. Check out my NOVEL 'DIMENSIA!' LOL.