The Reader's Request Book [REQUESTS CLOSED]

Plot Holes - Part 1 of ?

"Luckily for us, time is something we do have on our side," Red noted. "But still... how to explain plot holes... alright, let's think of it this way," the half-demon picked up a nearby notebook that was resting on their writing desk. "Let's say you're reading a fantasy book, and the only sentence it contains is, "the knight journeyed from his home village to the neighbouring city." So, we know that somehow, the knight has got from one point to the other. In our time," Red spread their arms, gesturing to the group, "It only took a few seconds to read that sentence, However," the half-demon held up the notebook, pointing towards it, "It would have taken the knight a lot more than that to get from place to place. In the knight's world, they would have had to wake up in the morning, get dressed, collect their equipment, go to the stables at their village, saddle their horse, leave the village, and so on. In order for the world to progress from the knight's perspective, the story itself is going to have to fill in the gaps, fill in the plot holes, with its only guidelines being whatever rules had been previously set up for that universe."

Placing the book back down, Red continued. "Regardless of what the author intended to happen, the story itself is going to decide what happens to the knight, and how long that takes. It could be as simple as the knight travels from the village in the morning, and reaches the city in the evening, in an uninterrupted journey. Alternatively, the story could decide that the knight is going to be ambushed by raiders or chased by wild animals. The story could decide that there's going to be an intense rainstorm, a tornado, or a wildfire. Hell, it could even decide to take the knight away from his journey and cause him to get kidnapped, taken prisoner, or anything like that. The knight could turn up to the city in as good a condition as he left the village, or barely clinging to life. As long as the knight eventually gets to the city, then the plot is still considered to be on track."

"Not only are we going to have to deal with plot holes, but we're going to have to deal with the fact that we aren't characters in the story. We don't belong there; we can't be fully controlled by written words like the fictional characters can. I could try and guide our actions and choices, but we all still have free will to do whatever we want. I might have more jurisdiction over the parasites, at least, I hope I do... regardless, our goal isn't going to change; we need to get everyone out of the Ego Sickness universe, and back into our own. Ego sickness parasites and alter ego toxin doesn't, and can't, exist here, so nothing can follow us out."

"That's good," Evan nodded with a slight look of relief on his face. "At least that's one problem out of the way..."

"Just for clarification, time moves slower in a story compared to reality?" Ronnie questioned, sounding a little confused.

"Haven't you ever noticed it before?" Red responded. "Whenever we would leave a story world, regardless of how long we spent there, only a couple of minutes would have seemed to have passed in the real world. An entire month could pass there when only a week passed here. Sort of like the wardrobe from the Narnia series, if you've ever seen that. Don't ask me to explain how as I've got no idea."

"Damn it, I could have gotten so many more extra hours of track practice if I knew that," MFR joked, although the determined glint in her eye made it apparent that she was being serious. "Stay there for a month, leave before the qualifiers start in the real world..."

"Not that we'd ever be there for that long," Red corrected, "Considering the rule about being there no more than a day, remember? Although you could safely spend some time in the story world, if you're there for too long, it makes it increasingly hard for you to leave as... you... and why are you looking at me like that?"

The group of three looked at one another knowingly, sharing an uncomfortable silence.

"Don't tell me you broke that rule too...?"