Except there's a reasonably large chunk missing. But I doubt anyone really cares yo!
Oh, and Livejournal's paragraphing is screwed on Ai-sama. Don't shoot her for this!
Chapter 1
What happens when you close your eyes? What happens when you fall into deep slumber?
It is said that everyone dreams when they are asleep.
What, then, is a dream? Is it just simply a process of the subconscious mind, or something else altogether? Prophecies of the future? Inner desires? Mere fantasies?
Are occurrences in dreams real? Where does the mind go when dreaming? What do you think?
For people who have lost their existences in the real world, would dreams become their new reality?
This is our story. One not of fantasy, but of reality. Our reality.
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* Large portion of text removed here. Basically, it was because I wasn't happy with the way it turned out. And also partly because all the descriptions in here are of Ochre and the twins' old clothing designs, which have been completely axed. But just to let you have an idea of what occurred, long story short: Ochre wakes up to find himself in an open, grassy area. Not recognizing his surroundings, he meets the twins who introduce themselves to him and explain that he's in Laevier, the Dream World that some people are able to 'travel' to whenever they are in really deep slumber. They also guess that that was Ochre's first time travelling to the Dream World. *
* Once I'm done re-writing this part, I'll upload it in this post as an edit. Who knows how long that would take tho', Big Os and all. This chapter was actually written over the span of 4 Fridays maybe 2 months ago. That's right, it took Ai-sama that long to finally decide to upload this ho! *
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“We call it the ‘Twisted Wonderland’. That’s not this world’s actual name, though.”
“…What a joke. In what way is this Wonderland?”
“Hmm-mm, that’s the thing, ya see.” The young girl smiled, “Welcome-“
“-To Laevier.”
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“Well now, now that the formalities are out of the way... Let’s show ya around town! It’s too huge, so not ALL of it, but enough for you to not get lost during your next few dreams. ‘Course, we’re kinda assumin’ ya even manage to make it back here.” Reina chirped away happily, seemingly oblivious about Ochre’s situation. Thankfully, her counterpart had considerably more tact. Flushing with embarrassment somewhat due to his twin’s behavior, he turned to face the older teen. “You should come along with us. We have to head back to town too, so you don’t have to worry about us going out of our way.”
“And why should I trust you?”
Reina frowned a little at this. “Hey, ya don’t hafta be so suspicious; we’re just bein’ helpful and all. ‘Sides, what could two 12-year-olds do to a guy probably twice our height? Stomp on your foot? Now that’ll be interestin’. And, is it a habit of yours to talk in such a monotonous voice?”
“Rei!” Raido attempted to admonish her, but was interrupted.
“Geez, Rai, let’s just go! If Deadpan here doesn’t want to come along, that’s his business.” With that, she turned to leave, leaving Raido with little choice but to follow.
In the end, Ochre ended up tagging along behind the twins.
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- Laevier, de’Hel Square, District 5 -
- Day 10 of the month of Ziehen, 12 58 hours -
The trio walked through town, the twins leading the way and occasionally pointing out structures and landmarks to Ochre. de’Hel Square was a hybrid fusion of modern and medieval, with gray paved roads and short brick buildings with thatched roofs functioning as bars, inns and shops, the tallest building being a popular inn that Rei pointed out, with only 4 stories. On the other hand, tall metal poles with speakers attached for announcements littered the slightly crowded streets. All about them were shops with only a simple cloth draped over metal poles for shade, produce such as fruit, meat and even sweets lined on wooden displays for sale. In the middle of the square sat a little stone fountain roughly 5 meters across, gushing clear water from a glowing sapphire jewel enclosed in the palms of the statue of a priestess in the centre of the calf-deep pool of water. Townsfolk milled about the square: young children accompanied by parents, women carrying brown paper bags of groceries or bargaining with stall owners, mercenaries dressed in shiny armor and carrying swords at their waists, conversing. The clothes the regular townsfolk more closely resembled those of medieval times, with dull-colored cloth used to make plain shirts, and pants or skirts. One occasionally saw a more fashionably-dressed person in reasonably more modern clothes, but such people were few and far between.
Raido gestured at the surrounding shops. “This is the market. There’s almost everything being sold here, from food to clothes, as well as basic household items. For weapons, armor and magic and healing items, you’ll have to go to specialist shops, though. You’ll find plenty of such shops around, but it’s more advisable to visit the established shops for such items. Never buy what you don’t trust, especially since weapons are expensive. A decent sword could cost at least 10 gold coins.”
“That’s a lot, by the way,” Rei added. “Perhaps a year’s worth of an average person’s salary. By the way, de’Hel Square’s the capital of Laevier, which is why it’s so huge. Right now, we’re only in District Five of de’Hel. The guild’s in District Five, which is why we’re here.”
“Guild?” Ochre couldn’t help but ask, despite his attempts to look uninterested with his unfamiliar surroundings. Tokyo was too much of a metropolis city for him to not feel amazed in such a town, dream or not.
“Yep, the Guild! It’s basically a gathering place for mercenaries, adventurers and what-not, where they can take on jobs and quests that are put up by others, and receive whatever payment promised in return when the requests are completed. Requests can range from the ridiculously easy, like delivering of an item to someone else, to the ridiculously hard, like the slaying of certain wild beasts threatening areas.”
“… Wild beasts…? This is sounding more and more like a game.”
Both children looked puzzled. “Does it?” They asked in unison.
“… Nevermind. What, so the two of you are merceneries? Or adventurers?”
“Nothing like that. A-nyways, here we are!” Reina stopped in front of a large two-storey high tavern made of wood and raised her hands dramatically. The guild had a large open entrance cut into the wood, and several smaller windows to allow the bright afternoon light to stream in. Even from outside, Ochre could distinctly make out the roaring sounds of loud conversation between middle-aged men, the clinking of tankards against wooden tables, and general hustle and bustle coming from within. Ochre swept a long stray lock of hair out of his face. He wished he had something to tie his hair with; something other than Reina’s ribbon that was.
Without waiting for a reply from Ochre, Raido quickly said, “We should go in. We’re blocking the doorway.” Reina nodded, then they stepped in and were promptly swallowed up by a crowd of people. Ochre had to search the crowd several times to find the twins amidst maids delivering plates of cooked dishes and beer to tables, just so as to ensure that he did not get lost, something that seemed easy to do in there. Their short stature wasn’t helping him to pick them up easily, their rust-colored hair blending in naturally with the brown wood walls and tables. He eventually, and with much difficulty, found the two seated on tall stools in one of the far corners of the room. Disgruntled, he almost practically marched over, roughly pulled out another stool from under the table the twins were at and all but collapsed into it. His feet actually touched the ground, a stark contrast to the pair, whose legs were far from even hovering off it.
He stared at them. “So, what are you two here for?”
Rai merely smiled back. “Just wait; business’ come soon. It always does,” he said, avoiding Ochre’s question. Sure enough, a warrior soon approached them. “Look.”
The warrior stopped at their table, mouth opened to speak, but quickly closed it in favor of a suspicious look at Ochre. Ray took the hint and quickly assured the man that the blonde was trustworthy.
“Besides,” he added. “Today’s his first time in ‘this world’.”
Apparently, such a factor meant a lot in Laevier, because although Ochre couldn’t comprehend why his first time being to Laevier could possibly mean anything at all, the man quickly adopted an understanding look and nodded. Ochre cursed mentally. The twins were obviously keeping something from him and he’d be damned if he didn’t somehow get whatever it was out of them by the time he had to wake up and forcefully exit Laevier.
The warrior spoke, “I want to buy information.”
‘Buy information’? So they were information traders, then? If that was the case, it would make sense why they were at the guild. They couldn’t have a better clientele anywhere else.
“Of course,” Reina drawled, her head propped up by an arm on the table, look one of extreme boredom. “Why else would you be here?”
The man bristled visibly at this, but forced himself to remain composed. Ochre wondered whether the man was the type to be easily agitated, or whether Reina just simply had a talent for finding the wrong buttons of people and pushing them all just for the fun of it. “That’s true. I want to know the details of the upcoming Tournament of Kings. All the details, including everyone taking part.”
“Hoh~? Interesting topic. I take it you’re planning to join? Well, regardless, that’s none of our business, right, Rai?”
Rai held out a hand towards the man. “You’re not a first-time customer, so you know how we operate. Pay up first,” he said, his tone business-like, “then we’ll talk.”
The warrior reached into a coin pouch slung at his waist and drew out a rather tarnished gold coin. He threw it at Raido, who caught it easily. Said boy looked at it, then turned his mismatched eyes back at the man’s, eyebrows raised. “Really? For the amount of information you want, you’re paying us only one gold coin? Isn’t that a little… optimistic?”
Ochre heard a badly muffled “s’all I’ve got”.
Raido had heard it too, and turned to face his sister. “Rei? What do you think? And don’t start another fight like last time, okay? For my sake? Please?” he sighed.
“Yes mum,” she teased, though her grin dropped the moment she interlocked gazes with the man. She shifted her stare to the man’s money bag, almost burning a hole through it with nothing but her eyes. “Your pouch,” she finally said.
“Hrrngh?”
“It jangled. When you took out your coin.” She held up two short but slender fingers. “Two more gold coins, then we’ll spill. That’s cheap, ya know. We’d normally charge five gold coins for that much information.”
…Wouldn’t that make it about half a year’s worth of an average man’s salary?
“Take it, or leave it. We may be the only information supplier in the guild, but we’re sure there’re others elsewhere… Though whether they’re reliable is another matter altogether.”
So Raido was good at goading others, Ochre noted with mild amusement, though his expression remained neutral.
Left with no other choice, the man reached into his pouch and pulled out the required number of coins. “Money grubbing little brats,” he snarled, flinging the shiny discs unceremoniously at the table. They clinked against the hard surface loudly, one coming close to falling off the table. Reina’s eyes narrowed dangerously at this, but she remained silent. The tense atmosphere lingered for slightly over a minute, neither the twins nor their client speaking a word, and Ochre himself not foolish enough to break the silence either. Then all of a sudden, the warrior grunted once and left.
Rei made a hissing noise like a cat, baring her teeth in annoyance, overlarge canines reminding Ochre of an animal. She lifted her head from her palm. “Seriously? Does that guy really think he stands a chance of winning the Tournament of Kings? He’s severely overestimating himself. I’ll be stunned if he even makes it past the preliminary rounds. Right, Rai?”
“Just forget about him, Rei.” The boy reached across the table to pick up the coins, an act made difficult by his small stature. He succeeded with a little difficulty, stowing them away in a heavy leather bag he extracted from one of the two pouches fastened to his belt. “But you’re right. Not to mention that the competition this time’s going to be really hot.”
Ochre may not have been an overly-inquisitive person by nature, but he wasn’t apathetic to events surrounding him either. “Hey,” he called out to Raido, “did he just give you money for free? ‘Tournament of Kings’? And what does my first time arriving in this world have to do with anything? Answer me?”
Reina looked at him pityingly.
“What?”
“You really do speak only in a monotone…”
“Shut up!”
“…”
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It would have been an understatement to say Ochre believed what he was told instantly. “Magic?” he smirked. “Really.”
“It’s true!” the twins objected in unison. Reina’s frown became a full-blown pout, while Raido chose to rummage around in his pouches, apparently searching for something. “If you don’t believe us, we’ll show you,” he said a matter-of-factly. He produced a small glass bottle, filled to the brim with a glittering substance, corked tightly. Uncorking the bottle with a satisfying ‘pop’, he emptied the contents into a small pile on the table.
Ochre examined it. “What’s this?”
“Finely ground metal powder.”
“And in what way would this be magic?”
“Keep watching, my monotonous friend.”
Ochre glared at the girl, who grinned back, but did as he was told, reaffixing his eyes to the lump of powdered metal.
Raido hovered his right palm over it. “Ready?” At the older teen’s slight nod, he clenched his hand into a fist. At the same time, the metal powder gathered, then condensed and hardened to form a shining metal marble. It all happened before Ochre could even blink.
“That was…” Ochre picked up the marble and inspected it, deftly rolling it between his fingers. It felt genuine, making it hard to imagine that it was just a lump of powder a moment ago.
“Magic,” Rai said, his eyes lighting up excitedly. “Magic doesn’t refer to the pulling if rabbits out of hats in this world of course, but proper magic, like fire, water… You get the drift. Remember the fountain we passed by in the town square? The water was coming from a low-level water magicite. Magic’s an essential part of this world, you know. Even electricity’s derived from a huge thunder magicite.”
“Although not everyone can use magic, most of those who can have affinities for certain types of magic. Usually they’re the common elemental magic of fire, water, earth, wind, light and dark, but there are also users of strange magic like us!” Rei added, with just as much enthusiasm as her brother. Ochre smiled to himself. So they still were like little kids after all, getting all excited just over magic. Still, magic seemed rather intriguing.
“Hey!” Rai protested. “They’re not ‘strange’! Okay, so I guess they are uncommon, but not strange.” Catching Ochre’s questioning look, he quickly explained, “I can control magnetism and gravity, since the two functions rather similarly. The marble was formed by making the metal particles magnetically attracted to each other.” With a snap of his fingers, the marble disintegrated into powder once more, falling through Ochre’s fingers and onto the table. Rai gathered the ground metal manually with a finger, then scooped it up and deposited it back into the bottle. After that, he sealed it with the cork and stowed it away back into his pouch. “I could form more things from metal powder, but… That was only a demonstration, and there wasn’t enough powder anyway.” He grinned sheepishly. “On the other hand, Rei here…”
“-Is a psychic~” she finished, swinging her legs back and forth under the table happily. “Telekinesis, mind reading, just a little teleportation; you name it, I can do it! That’s how we trade information, by the way. It’s a lot more private to speak into someone’s head than to voice whatever ya wanna say aloud.” Like this, Reina’s voice resounded in Ochre’s mind. He gave her a look to indicate that he was less than impressed with her invading his thoughts, but she simply smiled back cluelessly.
It appears that you could do a lot more to me than just stomping on my foot, Ochre thought, uncaring as to whether Rei was eavesdropping on him. A thought struck him.
“Can I use magic?”
“Umm, it’s hard to tell, but probably not.” The twins appraised him carefully. “Most people from ‘that’ world can’t use magic-“
“’Course, there’re exceptions-“
“Like us-“
“But generally-“
“No,” they concluded together. “Still, we won’t say for sure.”
Ochre quirked an eyebrow. “Do you two do that often?”
Reina cocked her head to the side slightly. Raido looked just as equally puzzled.
Are they not even aware of the fact that they just completed each other’s sentences? The blonde shook his head and turned to stare at the bustling crowd. “It’s nothing. What’s the Tournament of Kings then?”
“That’s umm… Kinda hard to explain simply…”
“You’ll understand it better if you know something about this world first. We’ll show you something, but you need to be outside to see it clearly. Come with us for a bit,” Rai suggested, getting off his chair. Reina followed suit by leaping off.
Ochre jerked his head once at the crowd as if to ask, ‘What about your business?’
The young girl waved him off. “It’s not like we’ve got fixed working hours anyways.”
Once out of the guild, Reina pointed up at the sky. Ochre followed the direction of her finger, squinting against the bright glare of the sun.
An immense land mass floated high above amidst the clouds, the sheer distance away from the ground making it appear no bigger than the size of Ochre’s hand. A large stone castle sat on the island, surrounded by lush greenery. Although the massive walls and pillars looked old and crumbling, it in no way looked anything short of grand. Ochre briefly wondered it the floating continent could crash to the one below.
“The view’s awesome up there,” Reina commented, then quickly added, “Well, probably, since it’s so high up.”
“What is that…?” asked Ochre, mouth slightly ajar in awe, an immense feat for him. Rei stifled a giggle.
“It’s Babylon,” Rai answered, though not before shooting a glare at his twin.
“Like the Garden of Babylon?”
“…I guess?”
They have no idea what that is, do they?
“Babylon is just Babylon,” Rei insisted. “Either way, the castle is where our King lives during his reign, together with his personal guards. It’s been enchanted in such a way that there’s only one way to get up there, and only the people who have excess to Babylon know what that is. Ya can’t just, ya know, fly up there or something. And, whatever you wish for will be granted if you’re King! But there are a few exceptions to that.... Like the revival of a dead person.”
Ochre looked highly skeptical.
“The role and abilities of the King of Laevier is quite rather unique, ya see. He does rule Laevier, but his main job is to directly control the prosperity of this world through his wishes. Like… If he wishes for a sunny day, there’ll be one, and etcetera. But the King usually just wishes for the crops to grow well and such. Pretty ordinary stuff, yeah.”
“Interesting as that is, what does that have anything to do with the Tournament of Kings?” Ochre did indeed look bored.
Raido took over Reina’s explanation. “Ah, that’s because the position of King isn’t everlasting, and the title can’t be passed on just by declaring a successor. And with such a wish-granting ability, naturally there’d be no shortage of people hoping to become King. That’s where the Tournament of Kings comes in. It’s simple, really. All the people who want to become King register through the official channels, then battle it out tournament-style. Through the combination of the elimination of rivals in the tournament only and a point system, the top six entries gain the right to enter Babylon temporarily to face off against the King’s six guards. The one with the best score gets to take on the King. If that person wins, he or she obtains the title of King. But if the King wins, then the King gets to keep his title until the next Tournament.”
Reina nodded. “Yup, and the Tournament’s held once every two years. Competition’s really fierce every year, so…” She broke off to stare at Ochre curiously. “Hey, Deadpan… you’re fading.”
“Don’t call me ‘Deadpan’ you brat-“ the older male began, but glanced at his right hand nonetheless. True enough, his hand was gradually turning transparent, the rest of his arm and body following.
“What…?”
“’Lax, your spirit’s only returning to your world now. That was actually rather quick, since the flow of time is Laevier is a lot slower than that of ‘that’ world, but it’s understandable since today’s your first time arriving in the Dream World. Once your spirit adjusts to the Dream World, you’ll be able to stay for a much longer time.”
“Oh.” After the initial shock wore off, Ochre’s expression had returned to his usual uncaring one.
The twins blinked. “You don’t look very concerned.”
“Probably because I’m not very concerned.”
“Ya might forget about Laevier, since most do. Ya might not actually even visit the Dream World again, but that really depends on something like the individual’s ‘natural-born talent’, so to speak.”
“Really.”
Rei puffed up her cheek in mild annoyance, her older brother laughing at her antics. “Seriously, would it kill you to get a little more agitated or something?”
Ochre chose to ignore her. Sticking his hands into his pockets, he closed his eyes and turned his head towards the skies, breathing in the scent of the air. “Well, at least that killed my boredom for a while,” he mumbled quietly. Smiling slightly, he reopened his eyes and faced the twins. “See you.”
“Huh? Hey, wai-“
Ochre vanished completely.
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- Tokyo, School Rooftop -
- 13 April, 11 31 hours -
A teenaged boy stared up at the clouds drifting lazily past, his long blonde strands batted about by the light spring breeze. “Babylon…” he breathed tonelessly to no one in particular. “A dream? Did I fall asleep?”
He slowly got to his feet and dusted off his uniform, feeling a sense of déjà vu. He yawned.
“Or maybe not…”
He pulled open the door to the rooftop and started down the stairs as a girl’s far-off shout of “Ochre!!” echoed, resounding through the narrow passageway.
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OKAY AI-SAMA IS DONE. Critique anyone? Especially the opening yo. I don't think the opening has enough 'mysteriousness' to it, but I really have no idea how to improve it. So if anyone could offer any suggestions as to how to do so as well and feedback on how to improve my writing... AI-SAMA WILL WORSHIP YOU HO.
Strange though, it seemed a lot longer on paper than it did in Word. And I mean that without the portion that I removed for editing. ... Ai-sama cannot write long chapters yo. At this rate the Novelization is gonna last hundreds of chapters.
Anyways, I've already announced this on my Facebook, but I'm not sure if anyone saw it. After the Big Os, Ai-sama is going to work hard to turn BABYLON Dream into a VISUAL NOVEL! Yeah. That's right, it won't be a manga any longer! (Which is actually the direct reason as to why everyone's design is being changed, if anyone is curious. Since Ai-sama doesn't have to worry about her hand rotting and dropping off with every panel drawn anymore if she has a character with a super complicated design.)
So some may wonder why I'm still novelizing BABYLON Dream if I've already decided to make a game out of it. I'm actually planning to do it in 2 ways actually. The first would be in the form of a visual novel, but this will most likely take off in speed when Ai-sama learns at least basic coding (although she knows of a program which literally requires zero knowledge in coding) and improves her drawing skills more drastically. In short, during her Poly year. Game design course and all.
The other way will be as a online light novel. This will be a consistent project. There just aren't any drawings at the moment because... Ahem. Y'all know the reason why. Blame Cambridge, okay?
With that said, if anyone could spread the word of my Ai-sama's series around, she would be eternally grateful. (;___;) I know there are less than 3 people reading this 'cos I'm just too darn low profile. If Ai-sama could get more feedback on her series and how to improve her writing/drawing skills from a larger audience that'll be downright brilliant. ... Just please spread the word AFTER November 15. Ai-sama doesn't want people to wait 3 months just for a single ridiculously short and poorly-written chapter. Or indeed ANY upload at all.
AI-SAMA DREAMS OF BEING FAMOUS. */BRICKED*
Over and Out!
~Ai