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Thirty to forty years prior to the present date, the public began noticing toon in the word. Their initial arrival was jarring and remains largely unexplained. Asking the toons themselves has proved pointless, as their answers are either nonsensical or colored by whatever reply would most satisfy the given audience. After brief confusion and concern, time and familiarity has served to make toons an accepted and largely ignored part of modern society. Most people have at least seen a toon, but they remain rare. The average person will go days without seeing a toon outside of the scattered "Toon Towns," which can take the form of whole towns founded by the toons themselves or neighborhoods the toons have adopted as their own. Toons have a tendency to lay claim to places with a particular tone, and fill the roles presented by those places. Thus, an industrial part of town will attract blue-collar toons, an office building will be populated by office worker toons, and the dark alleys and bad neighborhoods will have hookers and bandits.
Toons are not born, but drawn. And anything that has ever been drawn--even something unfinished or unused--can becomes a toon. How is unclear, they just seem to start existing while no one is looking. Toons themself only recall 'waking up' after existing for a while. The only limitation is that each character is produced only once. This means that a Bugs Bunny exists, but only one for each of his general designs rather than one for each animation cell drawn. But if the public views old and new Micky Mouse as two different characters then there will be two, even though each may have many design variations they can switch to. It also means that every street drawn, every pot or pan, and every forgotten background character has created a toon. Even doodles.
It follows that the variety of toons are endless. A sidewalk, completely stationary, can be a toon. So can an action hero, and even an almost perfectly realistic human--though a toon will always be obviously a toon, as the color and texture will never quite match its mundane counterpart. For whatever reason, most toons that are seen in everyday life are of the broad, zany, "Looney" variety.
It has been said of this setting that humans have freedom of mind, while toons have freedom of body. A human is capable of thinking, imagining, learning, and growing as a person, but they are locked in mundane forms. Toons can be and do practically anything, but their minds are locked into their role. It is not impossible for a toon to have a wider range of thought and emotion or growth than they appear to have, but such depth comes only with great effort, and invariably snaps back to the more comfortable and natural mindset of their form and role when no longer focused.
Toon's minds, thoughts and actions follow general guidelines of storytelling, cliches and stereotypes, not logic or emotion or natural order.
Everything about a toon boils down to a single concept: they live to entertain. A toon must have an audience. It will do anything to acquire an audience, and once it has one it will do anything to keep that audience. For most toons, this means finding a human or humans to entertain. How they entertain that human depends upon the role, but one thing is for certain. Whatever the toon does, it will do it in an over-the-top way.
A toon does everything to extremes, and they think only in the simplest terms. If a toon understands that hugs and kisses are a form of love, and they love you, they will hug and kiss you at every possible opportunity. It will be the only way they can conceive of to show love.
This extreme behavior naturally extends to the primary driving aspect of their minds--their role. A toon is the role they play. It is not an act. It is not a job. A toon chef is always a toon chef. It derives all of its joy and satisfaction from cooking and has little to no life beyond it. Even if the role is more basic and elemental, it remains the source of fulfillment and joy for the toon. A toon defined by being angry will love to be angry. Being angry will be what brings it the most happiness.
Toons are innately aware of all other toons and fully understand their roles. They may have rivalries over an audience, but a toon will always play their part in another toon's gag.
Some very basic toons may have somewhat subdued behavior, if that is the nature of their role. A background character never meant to be the focus of a scene will simply fill that same role as quietly and simply as they did in the original conception of their design. These toons may be content simply waiting tables or sweeping floors. If they are objects, they may simply enjoy being used. But even they will seek to enhance their audience and engage in gags if they are able. A toon hydrant will happily put out a fire, but if it has the chance to grow a face to curse out a dog, it will do it for the laugh. And a waitress who suddenly finds herself catching the eye of a patron will do everything in her limited waitress role to pursue that relationship, as a very attentive waitress. Toons understand the value of relationships, and if anything will motivate a toon to stretch beyond their narrow mindset, it is the possibility that a human has legitimate affection for them which might be fostered into the dream for nearly every toon; a private audience of their very own.
In the absence of an audience, toons can suppress their need to entertain by engaging in their role using human props. A gluttonous toon will prefer to eat human food. Similarly, a toon that receives a bad reaction from humans will avoid them, which is why most toons stay in Toon Town. People get tired of zaniness very quickly, and being disliked is only enjoyable to toons who were drawn to be disliked.
There is only one aspect of a toon's behavior that holds a greater sway over their actions than the need to perform their role for an audience, and that is the safety of that audience. A toon is physically incapable of causing genuine injury to a human. Even if the role calls for it, circumstances will conspire to spare the human lasting harm. A toon gator who's shtick is the constant need to eat a human? They'll endlessly try and endlessly fail. Even actions that would appear to injure the human will be contrived to spare the human damage. Dropping from great height or smashed into a wall? The wall or ground will also be a toon, and absorb the impact safely. Even extremes like decapitation or dismemberment will be achieved by a layer of toon ink hiding/camouflaging the real body part and creating a duplicate. A toon cannot hurt a human. They are too valuable as an audience.
Separate from their desire for an audience is the toon desire for access to human creatives. Because toons are the product of creatives, they are instinctively aware of an artist, a writer, a musician, or other human creative's capacity to enhance, improve, expand, and evolve a toon's role. Toons desire this, because it allows them to adapt to the present desires of a modern or local audience. A toon may desire depth, but only in service of an audience. Different creatives have different values to different toons, but it is broadly accepted that a comic artist is most valuable and an animator is least valuable, due to the comparative speed at which character can be established in comic versus animation.
Broadly speaking, toons do not actually have anatomy. All pure toons are composed of toon ink, a substance that is not fully understood. Toon ink, and thus a toon, is fully self-sustaining and self-animating. A toon does not require food, water, or sleep. Toon ink cannot be destroyed. It simply changes shape or deforms rather than suffering lasting damage. Toon ink does not change with time, so toons do not age. A toon has no organs, except when necessary for a gag. Since they are not composed of cells, they lack genetics and thus cannot reproduce normally. Toons are not created through standard reproduction.
Objects composed of toon ink can vary greatly in appearance, but invariably have a smooth sheen and texture, like rubber or plastic. The scent can vary as well, but will typically maintain at least a touch of ink, paint, or rubber aroma.
Because of their extreme resilience, a toon cannot die, though one denied attention or actively despised may fade and become inert.
The origin of toon ink is unknown, as is its essential nature. Study of toon ink is nearly impossible, as even a canister of raw toon ink is, with rare exception, actually a toon playing the role of a canister of toon ink, and thus will behave in the way that gets the best reaction out of the audience. Any scientist will have his or her hypothesis confirmed, because the ink will do what will make them most happy.
An unusual subset of Toon TF is toon suiting. In these instances, a human is covered with a layer of toon ink, and a quantity of toon ink coats their brain. This alters their appearance and mind in much the same way a toon TF would, but the physical form of the human remains intact. This provides some limitations. A suited human cannot drastically decrease in size. Toon-type behavior that would damage the human inside the suit simply cannot and will not occur.
Toon suiting is rarer than Toon TF because a toon prefers to be the center of attention for the audience, and suiting over a human means they are sharing the spotlight with the human. The suit will generally contrive away to set things up so the human will want to wear the suit beyond a few times. The toon suit can gradually "convert" the human to fully toon effectively combining with them if a larger audience can be achieved.
While it is an exceedingly common subject for stories based on the Toonvasion setting, human-to-toon transformations are extremely rare within the setting. Most people in the setting are unaware of it as a possibility, with even the most educated and informed toon experts believing it is at best an urban myth. The primary reason TF is rare is simple. A toon desires nothing more than to fulfill their role and to have an audience observe and enjoy it. Toons consider other toons to be an undesirable or inadequate audience or rivals for attention. Thus, a toon would normally go to great lengths to avoid losing a human as an audience. This is most often expressed in their inability to allow a human to come to harm, but it is also the driving motivation to forgo tooning a human. A valuable audience is lost.
Despite this, there are extreme circumstances in which a toon will transform a human. Most of these focus on the human's behavior or position preventing a toon's needs from being met. If a toon is about to be separated from a valued audience, it may convert the person responsible into a toon that will either enhance the situation or otherwise avoid an interruption.
Toon transformation is a function of Toon ink, and thus any toon is capable of transforming someone. The type of toon someone becomes when transformed is not based upon the toon doing the transforming, but based upon the situation. Because that is fitting and thematic for a story. Most often a toon will simply create another toon of a similar type, since if one toon in such a role has come to be in this situation, why not two? But if the gag calls for some other role to be filled, the transformed person could easily be used to fill that role.
A transformed human is transformed in both body and mind. Their body is entirely converted to toon ink and their mind is entirely reconfigured to serve the role. The mind is not erased. There will always remain a residue of the original human. That person's self-image, wants, and desires will simply be shifted to suit their new identity. Depending on the role, this could mean the human will maintain all of their memories, or it could mean they will be reduced to a chaotic bundle of zaniness. The toon created through transformation will find a way to continue to fill the role the human did, to some degree. Your girlfriend, even after being changed, will maintain the affection she had for you, and this will flavor her behavior. But it will always be through the lens of the new role. If your girlfriend became a toon hooker? She'll perpetually consider you to be a regular and likely act as though you've already paid.
When a human becomes a toon, all other toons will instantly adjust to accept this new toon in their role. Even though they've never met the converted toon, they will know both what he or she is meant to do and who they are meant to do it with. If your girlfriend becomes a toon, every other toon will know that the resulting toon is your girlfriend. It is as though that is a position in the universe that needs to be filled, and it will continue to be filled regardless of the shape the person has taken on.
As rare as a toon transformation is, a reversion to humanity is even rarer. Toons love being toons, so long as their needs are met. Thus, someone who has become a toon will very likely be uninterested in returning to humanity, even if they are aware it could be done. The only cases where this is at all likely are those in which remaining a toon would produce physical or emotional harm to someone. And even in those circumstances it is more likely that the toon will contrive a way to properly serve the purpose the human did until such time as the more complex behavior is no longer necessary. A toon doctor will be capable and serious long enough to save a human's life. A toon caregiver will take things seriously long enough to finish caring for those who depend upon them. But the moment they can be themselves, it's back to toondom.
Toonvasion Setting
Arrival
Thirty to forty years prior to the present date, the public began noticing toon in the word. Their initial arrival was jarring and remains largely unexplained. Asking the toons themselves has proved pointless, as their answers are either nonsensical or colored by whatever reply would most satisfy the given audience. After brief confusion and concern, time and familiarity has served to make toons an accepted and largely ignored part of modern society. Most people have at least seen a toon, but they remain rare. The average person will go days without seeing a toon outside of the scattered "Toon Towns," which can take the form of whole towns founded by the toons themselves or neighborhoods the toons have adopted as their own. Toons have a tendency to lay claim to places with a particular tone, and fill the roles presented by those places. Thus, an industrial part of town will attract blue-collar toons, an office building will be populated by office worker toons, and the dark alleys and bad neighborhoods will have hookers and bandits.
Toon Origins
Toons are not born, but drawn. And anything that has ever been drawn--even something unfinished or unused--can becomes a toon. How is unclear, they just seem to start existing while no one is looking. Toons themself only recall 'waking up' after existing for a while. The only limitation is that each character is produced only once. This means that a Bugs Bunny exists, but only one for each of his general designs rather than one for each animation cell drawn. But if the public views old and new Micky Mouse as two different characters then there will be two, even though each may have many design variations they can switch to. It also means that every street drawn, every pot or pan, and every forgotten background character has created a toon. Even doodles.
It follows that the variety of toons are endless. A sidewalk, completely stationary, can be a toon. So can an action hero, and even an almost perfectly realistic human--though a toon will always be obviously a toon, as the color and texture will never quite match its mundane counterpart. For whatever reason, most toons that are seen in everyday life are of the broad, zany, "Looney" variety.
Toon Behavior
It has been said of this setting that humans have freedom of mind, while toons have freedom of body. A human is capable of thinking, imagining, learning, and growing as a person, but they are locked in mundane forms. Toons can be and do practically anything, but their minds are locked into their role. It is not impossible for a toon to have a wider range of thought and emotion or growth than they appear to have, but such depth comes only with great effort, and invariably snaps back to the more comfortable and natural mindset of their form and role when no longer focused.
Toon's minds, thoughts and actions follow general guidelines of storytelling, cliches and stereotypes, not logic or emotion or natural order.
Everything about a toon boils down to a single concept: they live to entertain. A toon must have an audience. It will do anything to acquire an audience, and once it has one it will do anything to keep that audience. For most toons, this means finding a human or humans to entertain. How they entertain that human depends upon the role, but one thing is for certain. Whatever the toon does, it will do it in an over-the-top way.
A toon does everything to extremes, and they think only in the simplest terms. If a toon understands that hugs and kisses are a form of love, and they love you, they will hug and kiss you at every possible opportunity. It will be the only way they can conceive of to show love.
This extreme behavior naturally extends to the primary driving aspect of their minds--their role. A toon is the role they play. It is not an act. It is not a job. A toon chef is always a toon chef. It derives all of its joy and satisfaction from cooking and has little to no life beyond it. Even if the role is more basic and elemental, it remains the source of fulfillment and joy for the toon. A toon defined by being angry will love to be angry. Being angry will be what brings it the most happiness.
Toons are innately aware of all other toons and fully understand their roles. They may have rivalries over an audience, but a toon will always play their part in another toon's gag.
Some very basic toons may have somewhat subdued behavior, if that is the nature of their role. A background character never meant to be the focus of a scene will simply fill that same role as quietly and simply as they did in the original conception of their design. These toons may be content simply waiting tables or sweeping floors. If they are objects, they may simply enjoy being used. But even they will seek to enhance their audience and engage in gags if they are able. A toon hydrant will happily put out a fire, but if it has the chance to grow a face to curse out a dog, it will do it for the laugh. And a waitress who suddenly finds herself catching the eye of a patron will do everything in her limited waitress role to pursue that relationship, as a very attentive waitress. Toons understand the value of relationships, and if anything will motivate a toon to stretch beyond their narrow mindset, it is the possibility that a human has legitimate affection for them which might be fostered into the dream for nearly every toon; a private audience of their very own.
In the absence of an audience, toons can suppress their need to entertain by engaging in their role using human props. A gluttonous toon will prefer to eat human food. Similarly, a toon that receives a bad reaction from humans will avoid them, which is why most toons stay in Toon Town. People get tired of zaniness very quickly, and being disliked is only enjoyable to toons who were drawn to be disliked.
There is only one aspect of a toon's behavior that holds a greater sway over their actions than the need to perform their role for an audience, and that is the safety of that audience. A toon is physically incapable of causing genuine injury to a human. Even if the role calls for it, circumstances will conspire to spare the human lasting harm. A toon gator who's shtick is the constant need to eat a human? They'll endlessly try and endlessly fail. Even actions that would appear to injure the human will be contrived to spare the human damage. Dropping from great height or smashed into a wall? The wall or ground will also be a toon, and absorb the impact safely. Even extremes like decapitation or dismemberment will be achieved by a layer of toon ink hiding/camouflaging the real body part and creating a duplicate. A toon cannot hurt a human. They are too valuable as an audience.
Separate from their desire for an audience is the toon desire for access to human creatives. Because toons are the product of creatives, they are instinctively aware of an artist, a writer, a musician, or other human creative's capacity to enhance, improve, expand, and evolve a toon's role. Toons desire this, because it allows them to adapt to the present desires of a modern or local audience. A toon may desire depth, but only in service of an audience. Different creatives have different values to different toons, but it is broadly accepted that a comic artist is most valuable and an animator is least valuable, due to the comparative speed at which character can be established in comic versus animation.
Toon Ink
Broadly speaking, toons do not actually have anatomy. All pure toons are composed of toon ink, a substance that is not fully understood. Toon ink, and thus a toon, is fully self-sustaining and self-animating. A toon does not require food, water, or sleep. Toon ink cannot be destroyed. It simply changes shape or deforms rather than suffering lasting damage. Toon ink does not change with time, so toons do not age. A toon has no organs, except when necessary for a gag. Since they are not composed of cells, they lack genetics and thus cannot reproduce normally. Toons are not created through standard reproduction.
Objects composed of toon ink can vary greatly in appearance, but invariably have a smooth sheen and texture, like rubber or plastic. The scent can vary as well, but will typically maintain at least a touch of ink, paint, or rubber aroma.
Because of their extreme resilience, a toon cannot die, though one denied attention or actively despised may fade and become inert.
The origin of toon ink is unknown, as is its essential nature. Study of toon ink is nearly impossible, as even a canister of raw toon ink is, with rare exception, actually a toon playing the role of a canister of toon ink, and thus will behave in the way that gets the best reaction out of the audience. Any scientist will have his or her hypothesis confirmed, because the ink will do what will make them most happy.
Toon Suiting
An unusual subset of Toon TF is toon suiting. In these instances, a human is covered with a layer of toon ink, and a quantity of toon ink coats their brain. This alters their appearance and mind in much the same way a toon TF would, but the physical form of the human remains intact. This provides some limitations. A suited human cannot drastically decrease in size. Toon-type behavior that would damage the human inside the suit simply cannot and will not occur.
Toon suiting is rarer than Toon TF because a toon prefers to be the center of attention for the audience, and suiting over a human means they are sharing the spotlight with the human. The suit will generally contrive away to set things up so the human will want to wear the suit beyond a few times. The toon suit can gradually "convert" the human to fully toon effectively combining with them if a larger audience can be achieved.
Toon TF
While it is an exceedingly common subject for stories based on the Toonvasion setting, human-to-toon transformations are extremely rare within the setting. Most people in the setting are unaware of it as a possibility, with even the most educated and informed toon experts believing it is at best an urban myth. The primary reason TF is rare is simple. A toon desires nothing more than to fulfill their role and to have an audience observe and enjoy it. Toons consider other toons to be an undesirable or inadequate audience or rivals for attention. Thus, a toon would normally go to great lengths to avoid losing a human as an audience. This is most often expressed in their inability to allow a human to come to harm, but it is also the driving motivation to forgo tooning a human. A valuable audience is lost.
Despite this, there are extreme circumstances in which a toon will transform a human. Most of these focus on the human's behavior or position preventing a toon's needs from being met. If a toon is about to be separated from a valued audience, it may convert the person responsible into a toon that will either enhance the situation or otherwise avoid an interruption.
Toon transformation is a function of Toon ink, and thus any toon is capable of transforming someone. The type of toon someone becomes when transformed is not based upon the toon doing the transforming, but based upon the situation. Because that is fitting and thematic for a story. Most often a toon will simply create another toon of a similar type, since if one toon in such a role has come to be in this situation, why not two? But if the gag calls for some other role to be filled, the transformed person could easily be used to fill that role.
A transformed human is transformed in both body and mind. Their body is entirely converted to toon ink and their mind is entirely reconfigured to serve the role. The mind is not erased. There will always remain a residue of the original human. That person's self-image, wants, and desires will simply be shifted to suit their new identity. Depending on the role, this could mean the human will maintain all of their memories, or it could mean they will be reduced to a chaotic bundle of zaniness. The toon created through transformation will find a way to continue to fill the role the human did, to some degree. Your girlfriend, even after being changed, will maintain the affection she had for you, and this will flavor her behavior. But it will always be through the lens of the new role. If your girlfriend became a toon hooker? She'll perpetually consider you to be a regular and likely act as though you've already paid.
When a human becomes a toon, all other toons will instantly adjust to accept this new toon in their role. Even though they've never met the converted toon, they will know both what he or she is meant to do and who they are meant to do it with. If your girlfriend becomes a toon, every other toon will know that the resulting toon is your girlfriend. It is as though that is a position in the universe that needs to be filled, and it will continue to be filled regardless of the shape the person has taken on.
As rare as a toon transformation is, a reversion to humanity is even rarer. Toons love being toons, so long as their needs are met. Thus, someone who has become a toon will very likely be uninterested in returning to humanity, even if they are aware it could be done. The only cases where this is at all likely are those in which remaining a toon would produce physical or emotional harm to someone. And even in those circumstances it is more likely that the toon will contrive a way to properly serve the purpose the human did until such time as the more complex behavior is no longer necessary. A toon doctor will be capable and serious long enough to save a human's life. A toon caregiver will take things seriously long enough to finish caring for those who depend upon them. But the moment they can be themselves, it's back to toondom.
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 12.7 kB
Listed in Folders
Reposting this here since this is where it belongs.
Sounds like the only person who could properly observe toon ink is someone who has achieved the zen state of entering the void, and has no distracting thoughts or emotions in a desire to behold the truth.
So toonified humans, unless their role calls for it, usually remember their former selves, but either don't care, or their role is simply more important to them now? (However, a toon that was say a parent, would have being a parent as part of their role).
So toons can only function together if it means getting a bigger collective audience because otherwise they're just rivals for human attention? Or if their roles DEMAND such a thing? Can toons form friendships with each other?
Given the culture and civilization we live in, anyone tooned would likely have a social security number, outstanding bills and taxes, social media account, etc. If nearly everyone considers Toon TF to be a myth, then it honestly would make LESS sense if some sort of reality or perception change wasn't involved!
So while the majority of Toons are the 'zany' breed, cutie toons like say the Care Bears and MLP are not impossible?
So is every toon aware of every other toon in existence, or only aware of every toons role when they interact with that toon?
So they see drawn and converted toons as the same?
Which is an irony. Since the rules say a toon finds fulfillment in their role, and when with intense focus they can stretch out of it, they'll immediately snap back to their role.
She finds inner satisfaction in trying and repeatedly failing to be impressive. Hmm. Would this mean that like a comic strip character, her role is defined by a singular form of joke? Or rather, all jokes involving her spring from that basic promise?
Sorry. I'm sucker for world building.
Sounds like the only person who could properly observe toon ink is someone who has achieved the zen state of entering the void, and has no distracting thoughts or emotions in a desire to behold the truth.
So toonified humans, unless their role calls for it, usually remember their former selves, but either don't care, or their role is simply more important to them now? (However, a toon that was say a parent, would have being a parent as part of their role).
So toons can only function together if it means getting a bigger collective audience because otherwise they're just rivals for human attention? Or if their roles DEMAND such a thing? Can toons form friendships with each other?
Given the culture and civilization we live in, anyone tooned would likely have a social security number, outstanding bills and taxes, social media account, etc. If nearly everyone considers Toon TF to be a myth, then it honestly would make LESS sense if some sort of reality or perception change wasn't involved!
So while the majority of Toons are the 'zany' breed, cutie toons like say the Care Bears and MLP are not impossible?
So is every toon aware of every other toon in existence, or only aware of every toons role when they interact with that toon?
So they see drawn and converted toons as the same?
Which is an irony. Since the rules say a toon finds fulfillment in their role, and when with intense focus they can stretch out of it, they'll immediately snap back to their role.
She finds inner satisfaction in trying and repeatedly failing to be impressive. Hmm. Would this mean that like a comic strip character, her role is defined by a singular form of joke? Or rather, all jokes involving her spring from that basic promise?
Sorry. I'm sucker for world building.
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