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Bread Crumb 2: Waiting…
Text Transcripts
Media and Jacques stand in a waiting shed. Media is listening to music using earphones and a smartphone-like device. They are waiting for a jeepney (yes, they take public transport, it's called supporting the economy).
Jacques has his wing around Media's arm. Slightly blushing, he lets go of Media, who is mildly surprised. Jacques then suddenly holds Media's hand.
Media looks at him in confusion. "… What are you doing?" he asks.
"Crime," Jacques responds tersely.
"Hmmm," Media answers with an amused smile. "It's nice to see that you never change."
Notes
This is another bonus comic that I didn't originally write a note for, so I'm going back retroactively to share more Unnecessary Lore:
Most people avoid this particular waiting shed because it's too close to Media's and Jacques's manor. More stuff in the story later makes it clear why people avoid where Marginals 'live'. However, public transport follows a schedule in Maldevara, so there's a predictable 'Time' when a jeepney should pass by.
The jeepneys in Maldevara are similar to the jeepneys in the Philippines, as seen in the picture above. Besides jeepneys, the other primary forms of mass travel are metro rapid transit systems. Transportation is one of the more strictly regulated sectors, and it's difficult to move from one place to another without following certain procedures: for example, instead of getting on any vehicle as you like and paying with cash, public transportation is free but regulated through ID cards that function like passports, dictating when and where you're allowed to travel.
Media doesn't typically like to be recognised in public so when the schedule arrives he shapeshifts to a more generic form. I didn't bother drawing that because it wasn't really relevant. But now you know.
Löre 1: The Marginals
Theme: kian - In the Palm of Her Hand, The Universe was Reborn
In my eyes all has died
I can try to make it through the other side
Gone are the worlds nearby, emptiness that my mind denies
I've yet to realize that, in me, destiny relies
I'm living, I'm breathing, a universe reborn
I'm weary from finding what it has in store
So tell me, how do you view the perfect me?
Tell me, what do the people need to see?
In my eyes I'm alive
Though they've tried to push me off the tower of life
Still, I survived the throes of a world I'd no longer known
Laying so solemnly, knowing soon that I'd be set free
Everything aligns
Side by side the life I've made intensifies those feelings from my mind
I'm living, I'm breathing, a universe reborn
I'm weary from finding what it has in store
So tell me, how do you view the perfect me?
Tell me, what do the people need to see?
Tell me, is this the life that's meant for me?
Text Transcripts
The Marginals are a loosely defined "species" of supranatural, technically alien beings dedicated to the cause of "developing the Living."
Their true form is non-physical, their consciousness the recursive coagulation of an ("Internal") Universe and its contents ("Objects"). As they do not have a real Body, they fabriacte a physical form to be able to interact with the Living ("External") Universe.
Their bodies are always liquid in appearance, although they have their own peculiar "texture" when touched. They are able to take on any form they like, and can also use multiple bodies at once, although the extent of these abilities varies between Marginals.
The Marginals dislike physical contact, especially with Living beings, so most people never have the opportunity to touch a Marginal.
An image shows Jacques biting Media's shoulder, saying "Nom means I [redacted] you in dinosaur." The image is captioned: Except this guy.While their body/persona often presents as having a "whole" singular identity and consciousness, the entirety of a singular Marginal's consciousness is the sum total of its World, Objects, and the relationships between them, their "Living"-sona only analogous to being a part of the whole, or being a symbolic representation of the World's general "themes."
The Marginals do not use personal names in the Living World, only taking on a title based on their role/themes.
eg Media, expectedly, has "themes" relating to communication, narrative freedom, fantasy and technology. And, for some reason, birds.While sharing commonalities in origin and certain mechanisms, each Marginal has their own "system" of how their Universe is internally organised and structured, which can cause divergence in their specific abilities.
The "stuff" that comprises Marginals is Memories, and as such their species is rigorous when it comes to what they can and should Remember, and the way these Memories are internally organised within their World. Distinctions are made between specific types of Memories, as different Memories can cause different effects either to their World, Objects, physical form or to more than one of these, and different Memories can also have different mechanisms in how they are Remembered.
The way Memories are categorised and the mechanisms for Remembering them (their "system of internal organisation") vary by Marginal. Due to its sensitive and corruptible nature, a Marginal's system is kept secret even from each other.
* Not related to "plural/multiple" or dissociative systems, Objects are not alters/headmates/etc., they are representations or "personifications" of Memories.
An image shows the Curator holding a dog-sized creature that looks like a very fluffy bug. The image is captioned: Speep, an Object in the Curator's World. While the term "Object" refers fo anything that exists inside a Marginal's World, it is commonly used to refer to Inhabitant-type Objects like people and creatures.
Objects only "exist" while consciously Remembered, and are dormant otherwise. The "code" or "lore" of who/what they are sill exists in Memories, though.Their primary ability is reconstruction, conjuring physical objects into the Living World using their Memories as a template. While these objects appear to have come out of thin air, they are just "translations" of an Internal Object into an External object, and as such are intrinsically tied to the Marginal that makes them, considered "extensions" of their being. As such, only a Marginal who has a highly efficient system of internal organisation are proficient in this skill, as any flaws can result in objects that can randomly distort or disappear.
The way the qualities of the Object is Remembered will vary by Marginal. This will also affect their effectiveness in remaking it.
A Marginal needs to "consume" an object to be able to remake it. While they can do this symbolically (eg study/observation), literally eating an object is much easier.
Marginals can "mix and match" Memories, allowing the creation of objects they have never truly consumed by combining various Memories together.
An image shows the Security is shown replacing the Memory of ham in a ham sandwich into bacon to reconstruct a bacon sandwich. She says "The Kyojins have been Shingeji'd" as she eats it. The image is captioned: The Security. Very efficient in creating Objects, and maintains much of Maldevara's infrastructure.While Marginals can also make Objects that appear autonomous (eg people/animals), as extensions of the Marginals, they are not truly sentient, and do not have the capacity to Remember things outside of the Marginal that "owns" them.
Most Marginals the Living are familiar with are members of the Council of the Marginals. While appearing to be and often acting as an organisation" of sorts, the Council considers itself more like a "supra-Marginal," or a "pseudo-Reality," each individual Marginal an "Object to ts greater being. This has ties to the roots of how the Marginals as a species came into existence, and not because they are in a funky cult. Please do not call it a cult. The Media is not a cult leader and is not a leader of a cult.
While Council Marginals give off the impression of being relatively stable and autonomous "people," this is not reflective of their kind as a whole, the average Marginal not being "thematic" enough to form a concrete identity and thus a body. These Marginals are not members of the Council, because they do not have the decision-making capacity to care about not-cults. The Media occasionally busies them with other things, if they so desire to be busied.
An image shows Media pouting, saying "So rude…" The image is captioned: The ability to fabricate a body is not an inherent Marginalian ability, but something the Marginals learned from this ugly creature.
An image shows a bird saying "I will sell you to Satan for one corn chip." The image is captioned: Non-"thematic" Marginals are unable to maintain their own bodies and thus are linked to a body Media makes for them. (They usually look like birds…)Fluctuation in Memories is typically not something a Marginal would ever naturally experience; however, the Council Marginals induce this on purpose as a form of self-development and change. This leads to a progression where a Universe is eventually linked to a new set of Memories. The question for whether such a World remains the same Marginal/"person" or not is something their kind has yet to concretely define, most of them identifying as something in between.
While the "First" Marginal technically does not exist anymore (?), its direct and current remnant/descendant/iteration is the Media.
While he retains some of Its Memories, they are hidden deep within the expanse of his Universe and are difficult to access, and he does not Remember "being" It at all.
While a Marginal's own system of internal organisation is private, the general mechanisms of the Marginals are public and taught in Maldevaran schools. There are two main analogies used in explaining how their system fuctions: Narratives and Computers.
The Narrative view is more commonly used when explaining the symbolic/cosmic role of the Marginals in relation to Reality, as well as their ethical standards.
The "life" of a Universe is seen as a Narrative, with the Objects being treated like the "characters." The Objects are created and act accordingly in service of "continuing" the Narrative. Like a Narrative's characters, the Objects can be anything that the Marginal needs or wants, and there is no set "rules" to how they must act or be treated. While the Marginals have a strict Sense of Ethics regarding their interaction with the Living, Objects can be manipulated or mistreated as their "Narrative" demands. A Marginal having specific "themes" is also likened to how Narratives have themes. Their motivation to create Memories in the Living World is similar to how Narratives borrow elements and tropes from each other.The Computer view is more commonly used when explaining the literal mechanisms of how the Marginals create and maintain themselves and their Objects.
The Objects are likened to computer applications: they are only "running" as long as the "working memory" is running them. Like a computer, a Marginal only has a limited capacity for Memory, meaning running too many Objects at a time will eventually crash the system. The method of Memory storage also has similarities to how computers store files, and their interaction with each other and the Living has similarities to computers interacting over the same network, or even to an Al/neural network learning from an external source.Notes
The Marginals are primarily based on my own experiences with schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders, primarily the aspect of constantly ruminating/daydreaming. They're kind of like personifications of daydream universes in general.
Their concept of identity and emotions, especially with regards to having an 'internal' self (their World) and an 'external' self (their body/persona) is based on the concept of the 'schizoid split': an external self that is 'false' (not really but you know), designed to negotiate with an external world (that is often seen as hostile), and an internal self that is seen as 'real' although not actualised due to being kept hidden away from the real world, to protect it from engulfment and corruption.
While the system of Objects may at first glance appear to be a reference to 'plural" systems' (as with DID) to some, the Objects are not at all related or based on alters and the emphasis on having an incohesive identity is based on the aforementioned split (hence the comparison of Marginals to computers, as 'schizoidism' feels much like being a robot instead of a 'Living' person).
While systems may find some aspects of the Marginals relatable, I would hope people do not associate the Marginals with DID/plurality in general both as respect for the actual experience of having DID (as the Objects are not autonomous, which makes them dissimilar to alters), and for my own experience with ScPD. ScPD is already obscure enough as is so I do not want this aspect of their characters ignored or erased.
