Hey there writers. For the sake of this story and your ability to contribute, I decided it would be useful to make a master list of the diary's powers and restrictions, this way you're not at my mercy to see what powers are allowed and not allowed. Please try to adhere to this list during all chain links, and if anyone has a new power, feel free to add it as a thread, suggest it on a forum post, or send an email to me through the contact feature of CHYOO. If I like the power and restriction, even if I deny your thread, I'll add it here. However, anyone who holds the diary will need to come to this knowledge in his/her own time, there is no page that explains the rules for the user to read.
1.) The diary has absolute knowledge on the person it focuses on, even knowledge the supposed writer doesn't actually have yet.
2.) The person of the diary's focus is signified by the name written on the inside cover of the diary. When ownership transfers to another person, the owner is automatically made the person of focus. Ownership can only transfer through a willing exchange or being the first person to pick it up when it has no owner. Multiple people owning the diary is possible; in this case, the person of focus will initially be the first owner, and the person will not instantly change as the diary changes hands between the multiple owners. In the event the diary is stolen, the diary will still work for the thief, but ownership will not transfer to the thief and the person of focus will not automatically change.
3.) The user can pause time in the real word by tapping the diary three times in quick succession with the point of a pencil. Restoring time works the same way. However, there is no way to fast forward or rewind time in the present; the closest the user can get to the latter is to edit the diary.
4.) The diary's entries can be edited at any time by the user. Any edits that go through bump the original edits onto a yellow page for future reference. The edits can be achieved in one of two ways:
a. The person takes a pencil to the diary and writes in new parts or erases old parts. In this case, the diary uses the current history of the person to figure out what they should do as a result of these changes without trying to change the course of history too severely.
b. The person can enter Immersion Mode, in which they enter the diary and take full control of the past. Entering Immersion Mode is done by holding the tip of the pencil against the entry the user wishes to use as a starting point. Exiting Immersion Mode is done by will, and entering automatically pauses the present time. This method carries a number of rules itself: i. time in the diary will run as normal unless the user wishes to rewind, pause, or fast forward time; ii. In the event of a fast forward, the diary will take control of the events occurring in the fast forward; iii. When the past is running towards the present, the owner is present inside his/her past self by default. When the user pauses time in the past, the user will become a ghost existing outside his/her past self. However, the user is free to be the ghost form when the clock is ticking; iv. The user can make anything happen, changing every little detail of the past, even those that have little, if anything, to do with the user outside of fast forwards; v. By the same logic, everyone else in the past is no longer bound by the diary's faithfulness to history, allowing them to act on desires the diary forced them to repress; vi. The diary is liable to spout out relevant entries from both the past and the present to illuminate certain details and consequences for the user; vii. Immersion Mode cannot be used to edit events that have happened in less than 24 hours - this is to prevent a situation in which the user becomes unavailable at the time and place of these edits; viii. Should the user reach the time limit on Immersion Mode, the user will pop out of the diary, without warning, and the diary will compensate for any short comings caused by these ejections.
5.) The user cannot make something happen if the end result is to undo the event anyway. Only truly desired edits go through, though the user can edit out an action if they truly wanted the initial action but later truly regretted ever making it so. For example, the user cannot cause his/her past self to cause a car accident in order to experience what a car accident is like if the user intends to later make the car accident never happen. However, if the user causes a car accident, but then later decides that was a bad idea and wants to edit out the accident, both edits will go through.
6.) When the past is changed, the user will remember both the past as it was before the edit went through and the past as it was because of the edit. Both pasts will be remembered as much as the original was, with due consideration given to changes that result in major life events. As such, the more the past is changed, the more memories the user holds. In the case of editing the past of another, the user will only remember multiple pasts if the user is part of the edited past. However, the other person will only remember a single past, the new past, unless they obtain ownership of the diary. By the same logic, if the user loses ownership of the diary, the user will lose all memories except the most recent past.
7.) In accordance with the editing rules, the person of focus can also be edited, by owner and thief alike. In this case, the user will only be a ghost when immersed in this person's past, even if the user's past self becomes part of the past. Otherwise, all rules remain the same. |