OC Reviews (but by a jaded ex-wattpad kid)

Niklas Korhonen

The Universe

This isn't that important to the actual bio besides for a couple things, but ummm... yeah enjoy haha

The uni-verse is a strange one, to say the least. At its core, it's just like our world; the Starbucks barista still gets your name wrong on your latte, you still have to learn about the Cold War in history and your teacher starts rambling about its impact on socialism, and yes, YouTube still implemented two ads right after the other. However, there's just a teeny tiny thing separating it from our world.. and that's the existence of a separate idea world and a spirit world (world three and world two, respectively), think Popper's three worlds philosophy! Except that the third level of existence is literally a separate world of its own with sentient creatures, and so is the second world; though the second world mostly overlaps the two other worlds, allowing creatures from both to have consciousnesses and souls. All the worlds impact one another in one way or another in different ways. Oh nice!!!! I love this idea — I always enjoy separate worlds that interact with each other, and their overlapping allowing consciousness is such a fun concept

The creatures of the idea world are immensely powerful compared to the creatures of the physical world. They don't need sustenance, rest, they don't even need to breathe... they all have supernatural powers, some of which allow them to manipulate the very truths that make up the physical world: the creatures can see the ideas making up everything physical, it comes as easy to them as acknowledging colour is to us. And, well, you know what's bound to happen once beings, capable of manipulating the very being of the universe and everything in it, become bored.... Uh oh! Also, them being able to see the ideas of the physical world?? Very cool.

As such, this teeny tiny difference actually causes massive differences. For one? Magic exists! And it's a thing anyone can practice with hard work and effort (not to mention a license). Because magic is basically accessible to all, there are also certain organisations and agencies that oversee the use of magic and make sure it's not used for anything malicious - namely International Intelligence Agency of Investigating and Containing Occult Hostiles. New species casually exist, like merpeople and spiderfolk which are really just subspecies of human that idea creatures created some ten thousand years ago. They live among humans as average Joes, though notably merpeople have their own countries and cities underwater too - supported my magic, naturally. "Normal" humans themselves can also have strange mutations that appeared or persisted thanks to magic, often manifesting in loss of body parts that you shouldn't survive without, but I guess you do just fine now! !! Oh fun! This is a really nice explanation for magical details in an urban fantasy setting.

The existence of the second world changes things greatly as well. Once an idea being decides that its time in existence is up, it simply transforms into a new idea creature with no memory. Things are different for physical creatures, though. When they die, they leave behind a spirit, which is often hesitant and unwilling to die. These spirits often proceed to possess and haunt different places, objects, people, sometimes their own dead bodies. This isn't something you want to happen, though; the longer you stay in the living world, the harder it becomes to pass on to the spirit world. It is even believed that once you stay a certain amount of time, you can never leave and will be forever trapped. As such? There are things like counselling for spirits to try and get them to move on, there are trained professionals on the topic, there are videos, there is literature, there are probably hundreds of families around the world saying goodbye to their dead loved ones one last time before they move on. It's a little strange and unusual, like the death of a loved one often is, but it does happen and people are well aware that it will happen. That's such a cool idea??? I'd be interested to see how the ability for spirits to linger affects the grieving process.