When you get right down to it, in a universe where fictional worlds are places you can go to, what is "fictional"? What is "real"?

It's clearly all equally real. You're not gonna look someone like Agent Thoth in the face and tell him he's less real than anybody else. (I mean, you could try. Just tell me before you do it so I can make popcorn.)

But it's also clear that somebody, in some weird universe called World One for dubious reasons, wrote a book, or a film, or what have you, that purports to be the definitive record of a universe that most people in World One don't even believe exists. This is obviously nonsensical, even insane.

And what about agents who are supposedly from World One? Do they have authors? Clearly the answer is yes—but do they know that?

Some do, some don't. It used to be fairly common for agents to know they were just as fictional as anybody else, and to complain about the things their authors did to them. There's even precedent for agents reading the Words of their own stories in TOS 7, when Lux reads Acacia's "subtitled-thoughts" and nicks an arrow for her. Nowadays that's out of style, but you still get the odd duck like Jenni who is perfectly happy with the paradox of existing both as a wholly real, independent, demi-god-like entity on the one hand, and a figment of my imagination subject to my whims on the other. For her, there is absolutely no conflict with both of those things being true, depending on where you're standing at the time. Even Nume has literally glanced at the Fourth Wall once, and if pressed very hard, would probably confess that he suspects everyone has an author, including himself; he just avoids thinking about it most of the time.

And I think that's what most agents do: just try not to think about it too hard.

But that's not to say you can't have fun with it if you want to. {= )

~Neshomeh, rambling past her bedtime.