Manga Ehe he... Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but...oops?? ^O^;

[Guest Fifi the Corn F]

Okay, I read Lady Katakana's post, but I'm not sure if this qualifies as a whole story. It's just a synopsis (albeit a long one) of an idea I've been toying with for my own personal manga. I know it's not much of an excuse, but... this is my first posting here. I'm not much of a postie person, but I *love* manga and anime!! He he... (Grins, hoping her adorable cuteness and precocious nature will win the hearts of all the posters and get her out of trouble if this posting's in the wrong place) :D
Okay, I've been typing at this for over four hours, and my computer just crashed. If my train of thought seems off...well, it usually is. Here is the semi-condensed version of my newest and favoritest manga idea... (insert title here)!! (No, that's not the name...yet.) Oh yeah! There are no names or titles for anyone or anything yet...my silly names are just that - silly. For fun. Not serious. If you have name ideas, I'd love to hear them, but please don't say something like, "Bob is a stupid name for a supreme deity! Boo! You suck corn fritters!" I really don't like that. By the by, when reading this, think Incarnations of Immortality (Piers Anthony) and Yu-Gi-Oh! (Takahashi Kazuki)!
That said, on with the show (Doo doo doo doo doo doo DOO!!!)

At the dawn of time,a supreme deity far beyond our comprehension created all things. We recognize most of them - plants, animals, humans, angels... But there is one race that has been eradicated entirely - divinities. Divinities were celestial beings created of pure soul matter. They had no body, no extreme emotions... Face it - life like that is boring! To wile away the hours of eternity (divinities, as celestial beings, are immortal), they spent muchf their time "playing." This playing consisted of temporarily inhabiting (you could say "possessing," but that seems so evil...) the bodies of animals and humans. They could then feel emotion, and experience sensory stimulation. This was fun! But the supreme deity (we shall call him "Bob" for now) had grown weary of the insolence of the human race. He decided to completely wipe them out, save for one faithful family, and leave this universe to take up residence somewhere else. Before causing the great flood, He told the divinities of His plan. It was common knowledge that if a divinity was inside a mortal host at the time of the host's demise, the divinity would lose much of its celestial freedoms, although no one was sure exactly that loss entailed. Unfortunately, the divinities did not heed Bob's warning, and all drowned in that terrible flood.

Once the divinities were dead (or something similar - hey! What about, "Dead or Something Like It" for a title? Huh? Huh? Nah...) they found themselves on another plane of existance, completely different from that of Earth. This plane is known as "Limbo." In Limbo there is no such thing as constant time or space - all things can be manipulated (to a degree) by will. It is therefore entirely possible to exist both on Earth and in Limbo simultaneously (this will come into play later.)
The divinities tried, but could not reach Earth, nor the planes known as Heaven and Hell. Of course they all knew of Limbo - it is the place souls go before being either judged (in most cases) or reincarnated (that's happen soon enough.) Therefore, their only chance to escape Limbo (which wasn't bad, but dull!) was to be reincarnated. Yet in the "time" it had taken the divinities to reach this conclusion, Earth had drastically changed, and for the worse (time is only different if you will it so...apparently the divinities overlooked that.) Who wanted to return to such a dismal place, where all life was nearly destroyed? So the divinities decided to compose a list of what "tasks" needed to be done and kept up in order for the Earth to return to its neutral condition of life and free will for all creatures. These tasks were then divvied up among the divinities, who made an irrevocable pact to retain these "positions" until the end of eternity (huh??) Each position was given an official title and personification (person to fill it, who literally "becomes" the position.) Some personifications included Fate, Love, Good, Evil, the Earth, Time, Death, and War. These personifications were then reincarnated (remember, they're just soul matter) into humans, to begin theireternal vigil over mankind. Wonder how this works? I will give you an example! Now, to simplify things, we must label each character for this example. There will be: Little Jim (a regular boy) Jim 2 (Jim training to become a Deity) Jim the Deity (the Deity...drr) and Jim Huh? (Jim the Deity ready to retire.) Also starring in this example is little Jimmy. Little Jimmy's inlude: Little Jimmy (the reincarnation of Jim) Jimmy 2 (Jimmy in training to become a Deity) Jimmy the deity (you get it) and Jimmy Huh? (Jimmy the Deity ready to retire!) Other major characters include James (the incarnation of Jim/Jimmy) James 2 (yadda yadda) and James the Deity (a brief cameo appearance.) That's it! Here is an example of how a regular life cycle would occur for a Deity:

1. Little Jim is born.

2. Jim the Deity comes to tell Little Jim that he is to become a Deity.

3. Little Jim's soul and spirit separate. Confused?
1. Soul - the basic heart and overall "vibe" of a person. It does not contain a personality, and is not a sentient entity.
2. Spirit - the personality and inner strength of a person. It is a conscious, sentient entity.

4. Little Jim's soul remains in his body - without it, he would die. During the couple of weeks or so that the soul and spirit are separated, Little Jim is in a coma.

5. Jim 2 (spirit) is whisked away by Jim the Deity to Limbo, where he is trained to become the next Deity (of whatever it is that Jim's a Deity of...)

6. After training, the Keeper of Time uses his powers to take Jim 2 back to right before Jim the Deity met him. Jim 2 undergoes a complicated ceremony in which he agrees to exist on both the Earth and Limbo planes of reality. This allows him to live his life on Earth as if nothing had happened, while still maintaining his position as Deity. Since both planes overlap the same space, and there is really no such thing as time in Limbo (thanks to the Keeper of Time), Jim 2 can live out both lives as Jim the Deity (yes, Jim the Deity is Little Jim's future self!) and Little Jim simultaneously, with Little Jim never knowing what he had (or is, or will...??) done.

7. The ceremony over with, Jim 2 officially becomes Jim the Deity, and Jim the Deity can retire.

8. Jim Huh? is accompanied by all the other Deities in a ceremonial farewell, in which he gives the new Jim the Deity his Immortal Talismen (can't tell ya what it is, because Jim's just an example! Sorry Jim!!) and wades the river Lethe, which strips him of all his memmories (this is important because if a Deity retains his/her memmories the new Deity will never have a chance to learn and grow on his/her own.)

9. Once he has crossed the River, Jim Huh? is sent back to Earth, where he finds his own incarnation (Little Jimmy.)

10. Jim Huh? (remember, he's just a spirit) merges with his old soul (he can do this because, without memmories, he is still too disorientated to even realize that he's an entity in his own right) When this occurrs, Jim Huh? officially ceases to exist. He has merged with his soul, lending the strength he has gained from his time in office to the soul of Little Jimmy, who will pass this soul down from incarnation to incarnation.

11. Then the entire process starts anew, but with a slight twist. Every two terms, a Deity will train themselves. On the off terms, however, they train an incarnation of themselves. So it is with Jim the Deity. He seeks out Little Jimmy, and trains Jimmy 2 to be the next Deity. And on and on it goes...

But let us alter that example slightly, to bring you a new sample which shows why problems are arising in the world of the Deities:

1. Jimmy the Deity has served his term, and is ready to retire. Now known as Jimmy Huh?, he's accompanied by all the Deities to the river Lethe. But Jimmy Huh? knows something. Something is wrong, but he fears that more people would be hurt than be helping him if he were to tell everyone what he knew. So... he keeps the Immortal Talismen. As the next Deity, James 2 (almost James the Deity) is the only one not present - it would be too easy for something to go wrong with two spirits of the same soul together at the crossing place between the living and the dead. He assumes that the Immortal Talismen, the object used by Deities to channel their power - is in its special glass case, where it should be. It's not. Without the Talismen, James the Deity can't weild his ultimate powers - making him sort of a James 2 1/2.

2. Jimmy Huh? returns to his soul, which is in the body of James. At first, having no memmories of his past lives, Jimmy Huh? (we'll just call him Jimmy now) thinks that he is James. Since he retains the Immortal Talismen, he is able to stave off merging with his soul until he regains his senses and is able to willing say, "No! I'm not ready yet! I have unfinished business."

3. Jimmy lies inert within James's body, in a state of lethargia, until some event gets James so emotional that it snaps Jimmy out of his peacefull slumber. When this happens, Jimmy automatically takes over control of James's body. Since he is fully aware of what's been going on (but just not active) he of course is ready for retalliation, or whatever. Usually someone near to James is in trouble, and Jimmy comes to the rescue, using the powers (quite unconciously) of his (kinda still active) role as Deity, with the help of his Immortal Talismen.

4. It takes both of them a while, but James finally realizes that there is someone else within his body. He goes deep into his own soul to find... a reasonable fascimile of himself. Albeit, their personalities are quite different, but their main attitudes on life are the same.

5. Realizing their individuality while still maintaining a team outlook makes Jimmy and James even closer, and more powerfull! (Able to leap tall building in a single bound...wait.)

As time goes on for Earth, changes are occurring in Limbo as well. The river Lethe is losing strength! To wade the river no longer causes permanant memory loss, but a suppression of memmories. Of course, those Deities who go back to Earth really have no way of contacting the other Deities Limbo-side to tell them that something is wrong with Lethe (yes, the River has a personification!) Now more evils are beginning to arise! Odd creatures claiming to be sent by the One hav come to destroy the Order of the Deities, and claim Earth in the name of their mysterious Ruler!

Okay! Sound even somewhat interesting? If you want, read below for some spoilers!!

1. The One is Bob. When He saw how well Earth was doing (especially without Him) He grew something akin to jealous. As...whatever it is that Bob is, He isincapable of feeling true humane emotions, like love or pity. You can kind of think of Him as a machine bent on world conquest because It is obviously the highest-evolved creation there (kinda like a mad scientist commanding his monster to obey him!)

2.This one's confusing... (We'll just say Jim for now...) You wonder about Jim's job as Deity? He is... Satan. The personification of evil. Can a main character really be evil? You bet, if it's his job! You see, Good and Evil already exist in the world, without the help of Deities. Deities just try to keep the balance. If there was a truly evil being working as the personification of evil, the world would be in great peril. That is why someone essentially good, but with a dark side, would have to be Satan.

3. Someone's giving inside info away to Bob! Who could it be? You guessed it (or maybe not...!) James! You see, Jim knew that the world was in danger - as the personification of evil, it's kinda his job. He also knew that the methods used to gain power over the world relied heavily on getting rid of the Order of the Deities. To do this, a Deity him/herself would have to be helping. That's why Jim kept his Immortal Talismen - his term was up, but he had a hunch that evil would strike soon, and he knew James was too green to be able to handle an apocalyptic threat to the world such as this. Also...Jim knew he should have seen the signs earlier, but... That was a major embarrassment. Right as Jim was wading into the river Lethe (it was still at full power then), he had a vision. From who, he didn't know. But he saw James shaking hands with what he knew to be an ambassador of Bob's, and signing a contract in his own blood. It was then he realizd who the traitor was, but by that time it was too late. Lethe's lethal (get it??) process had begun, and his memmories were already fading away. Thankfully he kept ahold of that Talismen, or he'd never have been able to remain strong enough to eventually regain his own memmories!

4. Why doesn't Bob just make everyone bow down to Him, if we're all His creations? Because Bob gave everyone a free will, and once He has declared something officially "so," it is so. He cannot go back on His own sworn word. He primised that He would never use His powers to force any living creature to bow down to him. That is why He's created His own army and enlisted the help of James the Deity.

5. "Say...why did James agree to help Bob? I thought he was a good guy!" Well, he was. Actually, he still is. James was understandably disgruntled and hurt by Jim stealing the talismen. Honestly, it was James's turn!! But it was when he recieved word of a global threat that things began to get ugly. Bob had been watching James, seeing how upset and jealous he was. He used this to His advantage. he had sworn never to use His powers to make others serve Him, but... if He changed the spirits of the Deities to literally eflect what they were personifying, and to have an undquenchable hunger for it (for example, Death would be compelled to kill constantly), he could easily win most of them over to his side. Especially James. It was obvious that James didn't want to be Satan. He was an incredibly nice guy, and the thoughts of causing anyone pain made him cringe. No...the job James wanted was...God's. The personification of Good. With that in mind, Bob made him an offer he couldn't refuse - win me the world, and I'll make you God. You'll be my second-in-command. But there was a slight hitch to that plan that Bob did not foresee. When James agreed, all Deities (including him) were under Bob's spell of changing them to truly fit their roles as Deities. This, of course, greatly changed James. But...here's the kicker: James did secure the world for Bob. In the end, it all came down to a fight between James-as-Satan, and James/Jim the Dynamic Duo (he he.) And James won. With all the power of every Deity infused within him, how could he lose? But the moment he secured the world for Bob... he became God. You see where I'm going with this. When James became God, his nature, still under Bob's spell, changed to match his new role (of course, he really just converted back to normal, since he was a nice guy [ok, wuss] to begin with.) When that happened, of course, he gained all the powers of Light, but... his soul was still that of the Keeper of Darkness - in essence, he controlled the powers of both Light and Darkness. Using this, yadda yadda ya, James and James/Jim defeat Bob, though not destroy Him.

Um... that's it, I think. Please, I'd love to hear your thoughts, how I could improve the storyline, if it sounds like bleep, or whatever, you know? Please...? ^o^

PS - After sleeping on it, I decided that I don't like most of the spoilers, and it's too complicated, but I really don't know how to fix it. Besides - I *like* incredibly unpredictable, weird plot twists. But maybe these aren't the right ones. Please help me out, if you can!!

Ahh! Holy *hush puppies* that's long! I'm really sorry, guys! Maybe someone will
respond before it's deleted, though!! (??) :sweat:

[color=darkblue][size=1]Indeed it is. But the main lesson we learn from this is: "Paragraph breaks, as well as proper grammar are your friends." -Lady [i]Katana[/i][/size][/color]

[rokas]

[color=sienna][font=comic sans ms][b][i] So to try and understand what is going on: soul, spirit and deity are essencialy the same being. Spirit and deiti just swap places with each other, deiti rests in a body by fusing with his soul and becoming the new spirit, and the old spirit becomes the deity in the limbo.

If above paragraph is correct, then this story is kinda cool. It does kinda make you think about the meaning of life and the real you. There is that episode where deity fights the spirit which is symbolic of your personal strugles against your own weaknesses. Which makes this quite dark stuff,, although so far it is written in quite a light-hearted format, but with a litle fine tuning it could really be gripping. Do not give up on the idea yet.[/b][/i][/font][/color]

[Sir Gawain]

My lord! This is a great story!
.
You've outdone yourself substantially. With so many interesting twists within the plot, which are very well thought out, this has the potential to attract some major attention. Indeed though, Deities, double souled beings, and Limbo have all been done before.

Never so much grandly though. I enjoy the overlook of this story, the complicated rules, and the much anticipated action. I look forward to reading this in perhaps the OB Anthalogy.


Good luck! ^_^