This is the story of several young men and women nearing the end of their childhood, entering the 12th grade at Wilson High in the suburban town of Silverhill on Long Island, New York. These same people are you, the players. At the outset of the story, we see a typical first-day-back scenario when one of the characters receives a strange message from the future (detailed in Message Log 1). From there, everything spirals out of control rapidly and the characters are forced to unlock the mystery of the messages while they run for their lives!
I'm going to teach you something about the world we live in. It starts with something you may already be aware of: String Theory. I could give you a several-thousand-page thesis on the topic, but for our purposes I will simply present a brief rundown of the eleven dimensions. Now I know the first instinct is to start at one, but there is in fact a zero dimension. This dimension is simply a point of indeterminate size; that is to say, it has no dimensions (length, width, height, duration, etc.), hence it's name. Let's start at this point and draw a simple line segment from it ending at another point of indeterminate size. This is the first dimension, two points connected by a length, a measurable distance. Now draw another line from the same point off in a different direction. Now we have the second dimension, width. Picture the second dimension as a sheet of paper. This sheet, which has an area, is basically a cross-section of the third dimension; by stacking more pages on top of it, you gain height and volume, and any of the sheets in the stack is just a slice of the third dimension. Additionally, you can fold a single sheet of paper so that the ends touch and cause two distant points in the second dimension to touch each other while simultaneously traversing a negligible distance. These are the familiar dimensions, the ones we see every day of our lives right in front of us.
All that is, was, or will come to be, exists in the continuous flow of time, the 4th dimension. Now, imagine our three-dimensional world condensed into a single point of indeterminable size. This dimension is static, un-moving. But we can feel it move, we do things and watch it move. These actions occur over time, and at the end the third dimension is different than it was before. The third dimension has now moved to a new point, but it didn't just appear there. Things happened in between then and now, and the way we represent this is with a new dimension: duration. Duration, as it turns out, is a simple line connecting two different points or states of the third dimension, much like how the first dimension connects two points of indeterminate size, hence the term "timeline". This is where most people stop counting dimensions, and worry only about events along their single comprehend-able timeline. What will happen in a few minutes from the current me? What just happened to my reality a few minutes ago? These are the questions most concern themselves with on a sub-conscious level.
But there is more to it, so much more! Some people are willing to take an extra step and ask a question like, "What would happen if I went back in time killed myself?" Well, the answer to that is quite simple: nothing would happen to you, but the mere fact that you exist at that particular point in time causes time to skew itself into a fork. The timeline you came from is no longer accessible to you by normal means, only the shared past and split future of this diverged timeline (where the "you" that originated in this timeline is dead) are considered your perceivable reality. This new timeline and all other possible timelines branching off from the "original" timeline encompass the fifth dimension.
Recall that I said there is no way to return to your original timeline through normal means. By normal, I meant only the misconception that after traveling backward, one is able to travel forward and "return" to their original "present" time. This simply is not true, for a fifth-dimensional timeline intersects the original timeline at exactly one point, a point that is completely inaccessible because returning to that point yet again inevitably creates a third, even more varied timeline. But what if the new timeline could intersect with the original timeline more than once? To do this, we need to return to the paper example. If the fifth dimension is comparable to this sheet, then one can fold it just like before and cause the ends to touch at exactly one point. This is the sixth dimension, all possible diversions of all conceivable timelines through which our third dimension travels. In essence, the sixth dimension is exactly every possible outcome of our universe all at once.
By now you may have noticed a pattern here. We started with a point, the zero dimension. We then connected it to another zero-dimensional point, and called this the first dimension. We drew another line from the same original point, the second dimension. Then we stacked them all up to represent every possible direction this extra line could have been drawn in, the third dimension. Here's where the pattern repeats: taking the third dimension as a point, we connected it to another three-dimensional point and called this duration, the fourth dimension. We added another timeline from this same point and called it the fifth dimension. Finally, we stacked these alternate timelines up to represent all possible diversions of all possible points on the original timeline, the sixth dimension. Naturally we can and should attempt to replicate the pattern again, starting with containing all of reality into a single point, a sixth-dimensional point. This point is the Universe. Our Universe doesn't just sit there though; like the third dimension, it moves. The path it travels to reach an end result is the seventh dimension. Like time, however, the Universe is capable of diverging and traveling in a different direction. The eighth dimension represents all of the possible directions that our Universe can travel on. So far we've only discussed our observable universe, which began with the Big Bang. But what if the universe didn't start that way? What if the universe began in such a way that it would fundamentally differ from ours? Each of the varied "beginnings" to our Universe become a Parallel Universe where the laws of physics develop differently from what we know. Despite this, the name "Parallel Universe" implies that these "other" universes are just different versions of ours, and this is correct. Each of these parallel universes also has it's own seventh and eighth-dimensional routes, and so the ninth dimension in turn is all possible diversions of all possible Universes.
So now it's easy, right? Point, line, fork, fold, repeat. Take the ninth dimension and condense it to a single point: the tenth dimension, commonly referred to as the Multiverse for a total of eleven dimensions. The Multiverse is a theoretical dimension where all of the possible outcomes of our universe exist. Next we draw a line from the Multiverse to... where? Here's where we hit a roadblock, scientifically speaking. It's actually kind of ironic, but the fact that the Multiverse contains all possible diversions of all possible universes by definition means that there is literally nothing beyond it. There is no other Multiverse! This is the only one, because the Multiverse must contain everything else to be called a "Multiverse". This is where the dimensions stop, since we can't add any more.
But you're probably wondering why I bothered to tell you this, aren't you? I'll tell you why... it's because you found this tape. Whatever place, time, or dimension you think you found this in... there's more to it than any of us could have ever thought possible, and yet the answer was staring us in the face this whole time! I'm telling you this because I need you to understand that everything I said so far... is false.
Well, not entirely. Really the only bit that's false is the ending, where I told you it ends at the Multiverse. I can't hope to explain what I mean, only that you understand what I've said so far. What I now know transcends time and space in every sense of the word, and only possible because I was able to perform a fully synchronized shift... I won't live much longer, but there must be someone who exists somewhere and some-when that can finally surpass the countless failures of the past (myself included) to uncover the truth before them. If you come across this message, that person may very well be you, or someone you know. Or someone who doesn't even exist in your world. This is merely a hopeless final stretch to pass my knowledge onto my successor, my way of passing the burden of our world on to the next unfortunate soul to find this.
Listen very carefully, for my time is almost up. This message comes from your original future in the year 2034, but if you remember my example from before then you'll realize that the fact that this message exists in your world means that my future is no longer an eventuality for you. From this moment forward, the future is in your hands. Twenty years ago in my world I received a very similar message, and from there the events described in it began to occur almost like clockwork. I anticipate that these events will repeat in your world, and so I shall attempt to inform you of these events in as similar a fashion as I received the information myself. For now, all I can tell you is that in the near future (which I sadly cannot approximate over such a long gap in time) you and your closest friends will be in great danger. What happens specifically is impossible to tell, but at least this much is true. If you manage to avert this danger, then my next message should arrive on Monday, September 8, 2014, about a week from your present time. My time is up now, any more and I fear I will alter too much at once.
Good bye.
End of tape
Example Character Sheet
This was the CS of my co-GM Light, who served as somewhat of a "main character". Not to say he has to be more important than others' characters, just that he would be the character with which I drive the plot along so we don't lose focus or get lost.
I hope we can get the ball rolling on this again, I have some really cool ideas and surprises in store for those who are interested. If you were in the first attempt you can use the same CS when the OOC is up, I still have them all saved. For everyone else, I'll accept CS's once the OOC is up (assuming I get enough interest).
