I got passed on this ask a month or so back from the Transcendence AU blog and I completely neglected to answer it due to being confused by tumblr’s messaging system and then losing it under Erica spam. A question about the otgw/gw xover fic! (soon to include other expanded universes probably)
“So is Demon!Dipper knowing and interacting with Beast!Wirt a thing now? Because that would open up so many new avenues for humor, angst, world-building, the whole nine yards. Think of it. Greg and Mabel would be total bros. From the story submissions, Wirt is still a really anxious person, so Mabel would probably force them to talk. They could bond over their siblings, their lost humanity, their annoying jobs. And if they interact enough, their respective myths would probably start to overlap. Like the parts about the woodsman. Imagine:
‘The Woodsman: Alcor’s final and most horrific familiar. An undying monster born when the lost soul within the first Edelwood tree burned in the Beast’s Lantern. Over ten feet tall with the souls of the damned burning bright red upon his head between antlers of mangled Edelwood, the Woodsman is Alcor’s greatest show of contempt towards his victims. For while Mizar celebrates her butchery and Gliese devours with the face of innocence, all those who face the Woodsman’s rage live to see another day. If such an existence can be called life. All who bring the Woodsman to raise his axe are mercilessly chopped into still living pieces, unable to move, unable to run, and unable to die. In this state they are forced to remain, until Alcor deems it worth his time to destroy what is left.
While the Woodsman is currently beholden to Alcor, demonologists agree that he was once the servant of the Beast (for more information, see The Beast, p. 72). Bound to the land of the Unknown (p. 68), the Woodsman would chop down the Edelwood trees to grind into oil for his Master’s Lantern. It is currently unknown how the Woodsman came into service under Alcor. Some believe that both Alcor and the Beast made a deal in which the Woodsman was paid to Alcor, though what the Beast received is unknown. Others say that it was the Woodsman himself who traded his freedom for protection from the Beast, and indeed this makes sense, for the Beast is often seen trailing both Alcor and the Woodsman. Whatever the case, deal or not, it would appear that the Beast wishes to reclaim the Woodsman, for the Beast has never allowed anything he has caught to evade him forever. Perhaps it is because of this that the Woodsman keeps his victims alive. For if the Beast should stumble upon them first, devouring their souls keeps the Woodsman out of the Beast’s grip just that much longer.’
Wow… That kind of ran away from me. But I still think it would be cool for Dipper and Wirt to interact when they aren’t off doing their separate things.”
Wow, it took me a reread to follow and that sounds badass as hell. If you think about it, the main source of information for dimensions like the unknown would be first average people interacting with supernatural folk, re: internet, some extremist supernatural folk spreading propaganda, news outlets, and then the public outcry/panic then ensuing government investigation where dubious efforts are made in the ignorant pursuit of science/magic. Supernatural beings that integrated with society would have a hard time, either deciding to disappear or go for broke, the masquerade would be in shreds, and terrible incidents would start happening daily as just a natural consequence to unmitigated power suddenly being available to any maniac desperate enough to try, as well as well-intentioned humans being taken advantage of, others trying to combat the effects, etc. So after the initial hubbub, if the internet wasn’t affected by a supernatural entity/curse/retcon/new viruses, information could be spread in an underground market, the rapidly forming groups, country intelligence, and whatever would be spread on the airwaves of radio or t.v. Word of mouth or new media outlets created with the new magic means is also possible. Some would claim it all to be a hoax for a very long time. Of course information would be flawed, misaimed, misinformed, or downright inaccurate. “Eat lead to protect yourself from fire moths who have been recently found to emit radiation!” “Inject this substance to gain good luck! Guaranteed to work. Made by benevolent brownies.” Panic would be mass, any slightly alarming piece of information would inflate within days, true or not. By the time actual researched material was published in an organized fashion, the truth would be difficult to find, because any actual physical evidence wouldn’t exactly be physical etc. It would be totally based on word of demon or ancedotes, kind of like alien invasion stories yeah? Probably everyone would be distracted by the new mutated species of bird eating their crops or something before esoteric stuff like an alternate dimension limbo. If holy water affected demons, that would literally pit religions against each other in a new definition for blasphemy, god, etc.
(To resolve this, I made the supernatural beings run on a parallel world/affected-by-belief kind of energy thing.) But literally no single person would agree.
I can’t exactly see demons like Alcor being summoned on a regular basis either, because that would be taking a risk similar to licking a burning stove. Why would you do it? Are you crazy? Are you suicidal? There are frankly less painful ways to go. And plus, killed by a demon? Doesn’t sound like an ideal afterlife.
So basically, yeah, rumors would be treated as potential fact, the more dangerous, probably the more ‘accurate.’ Similar looking or sounding beings would definitely be mistaken for each other. I’m pretty sure Gliese, Edelwood, the Beast, and the Woodsman would come to have a more sinister renown (rite up there with alcor of corse) and basically be horrible tales forever rooted firmly in truth.
(And man oh man if I don’t have some Mabel/Greg/Wirt/Dipper interaction all revved up in my drafts. I’ll do it.)
Other thoughts: Even after demon deals may have to be start getting regulated, lesser, weaker demons would be summoned more often, as they aren’t a freaking godlike-implied power as Alcor is supposed to be. Imagine how many bad guys of the movies he would be, the mysterious forbidden figure that is basically the worst to summon. Alcor or other star names suddenly becomes a popular bad guy name in popular literature etc.
I’m personally imagining how ‘a demon made me do it’ would fare as an affirmative defense in criminal law, as well as the changes to the u.s constitution if beings derived from or other than sentient ‘human’ became like a thing that would have to be litigated. I’m trying to picture how a war wouldn’t result as well, either between countries for power sources, new and perceived, between supernatural against staunchly humanist, etc. I wonder how much responsibility would be put on the instigators of the whole event.
Other things that would be affected: commerce, economy, transportation, inventions, weapons, international borders, human rights violations definition change, space, aliens, technology, sports, food, isolation, debt, insurance, sports, olympics, chemical change, years of science, death, medical care, tragedy, entertainment, performance art, illusion, schooling, animal care, endangered species, protected parks, natural phenomena, human enhancement, academic testing, body chemistry, job market, generation shift, weather, crops, tides, legends, aesops, scams, politics, reviving old movements like eugenics etc. I can theorize on any of them, so message any ideas!
SO MUCH DELICIOUS WORLDBUILDING
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