Line #20 Literature/LivInTheFuture


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/litf_banner_d2a77d73_bdc8_40a0_a2c6_d255b0950723_300x.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Documenting our crazy, [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] future for us.]]
3	->''"Also like - can someone tell my mom I’m here? Like tell her I’m good but also...981 years in the future."''
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5	''Liv in the Future'' is a WebSerialNovel published on [[https://apps.apple.com/US/app/id1534751908?mt=8 Litty]] by Shadows Interactive.
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7	Liv has just graduated from high school and is uncertain of what the future holds for her. The matter is suddenly decided when she pokes at a strange glowing crack in the sidewalk and finds herself in the year 3000. After befriending and settling in with a pet rental service employee named Alix, Liv aims to make the most of her new reality (and maybe find a way home) while trying to prevent anyone else from finding out she's not a local.
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9	Liv also has a CharacterBlog, which provides additional insight on what she’s thinking over the course of the story and depicts events that chapters on Litty haven’t reached yet.
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11	Liv's CharacterBlog primarily updates on Instagram [[https://www.instagram.com/livinthefuture/ here]] and has a mirror on Tumblr [[https://livinthefuture3000.tumblr.com/ here]].
12	----
13	!!''Liv in the Future'' provides examples of:
14	* AccidentalTimeTravel: Liv ends up in the year 3000 after poking a portal in the sidewalk with a stick.
15	* ActuallyIAmHim: Liv and Alix get into the morgue by claiming to be delivering a pet to "Josh". Before they can get out of the mortuary, they're found by a burly mortician who asks them what they're doing there. When Alix repeats their cover story, the mortician says ''he's'' Josh.
16	* AlternateUniverse: One of the types of dimensions the portals can lead to. While not shown, one government-sustained portal is known to lead to a universe where Jamaica has sharp sand.
17	* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife:
18	** Liv's kitten, Agent Spaghetti, has teal fur.
19	** One of Alix's many pets is a purple-furred cat named Gemini.
20	* ArcWords: The word "dreams" appears frequently. "In dreams we trust" is used as a government slogan, there's a [[spoiler:government research facility that specializes in dream extraction]], one of the books Liv checks out from the library is about dreams, a brand of government-endorsed cereal called Dreamy-O's exists, and a carnival has a Gravitron-style ride called "The Dream Juicer".
21	* ArtificialLimbs: Alix has a prosthetic leg. While he doesn't remember how he lost it, it's implied [[spoiler: the Neighborhood Watch]] was involved.
22	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: A swimming pool Liv visits has the following rules:
23	## No running
24	## No diving
25	## No breathing
26	## No introducing live sea creatures to the swimming pool ecosystem
27	## No devouring live birds in the deep end (shallow end OK)
28	## No calling your grandmother (I'm sorry, but she doesn't love you as much as you thought she did)
29	## [[MoodWhiplash Above all, HAVE FUN! ☺]]
30	* BreatherEpisode: Chapter 11 is a short chapter about Liv attending her first Z-ball game. The chapter preceding it has a one-two punch of [[spoiler:Liv's reaction to what Cleanup Crew does to beings that pass through portals and a meeting between Mr. Prez and someone named Helios about a portal-related project]].
31	* {{Calvinball}}: The game of Z-ball is primarily based on baseball, as it shares elements such as the scoreboard layout and positions such as pitcher and batter. It also has an obstacle course that wouldn't be out of place on Series/NinjaWarrior and according to Liv, has aspects similar to dodgeball.
32	* CharacterBlog: Liv has Instagram and Tumblr accounts. Her Instagram occasionally takes input from fans in deciding what she should do, while the Tumblr has her respond to questions from fans.
33	* ChekhovsGun: Liv presses the elevator button in the morgue on impulse, which Alix criticizes her for since they aren’t going to the place the receptionist thinks they are. A portal appears shortly afterward and a monster comes through it; the elevator arriving allows them to escape from the monster, as the other possible escape routes are blocked off.
34	* ComplexityAddiction: Liv’s plan for getting an ID watch she needs from a morgue is overly actionized. She proposes hiding by the loading dock and disabling the security cameras, knocking out the guards with “secret kung-fu karate moves” and taking their uniforms to enter undercover, defeating any baddies they find along the way, capped off by taking a watch and getting the heck out. The absurdity of it causes Alix to [[StunnedSilence go silent for a moment]] before he can react properly.
35	-->'''Alix''': Need I remind you again that this ''isn’t a fantasy?''
36	-->'''Liv''': I thought it was a good plan...
37	* CrashingDreams: Liv’s secret agent/spy dream takes a turn for the surreal when a giant blue pufferfish starts singing an 80’s pop song. The music turns out to be the ringtone she assigned to her best friend.
38	* DomesticatedDinosaurs: Liv adopts a quartet of tiny dinosaurs that wandered out of a portal as pets.
39	* DreamIntro: The story appears to begin with Liv as a badass secret agent... at least, until the [[RealDreamsAreWeirder giant singing pufferfish and the glowing-eyed cat]] appear. She’s having a dream the night before her high-school graduation. The corridor the dream began in and the cat later appear once Liv travels to the future.
40	* {{Dystopia}}: Despite all the colorful and exciting trappings, the year 3000 isn't a great place to live. Wearing government-issued Unizon ID watches is mandatory; anyone found without one is suspected of having arrived via a portal and taken in for study. The government is a dictatorship that's been run by the enigmatic Mr. Prez for the past 23 years and the existence of highly skilled assassins is openly advertised on magazines. On top of that, there's an ever-changing variety of bizarre environmental hazards such that daily alerts about them are issued on people's Unizon watches. Most citizens don't seem to mind what's going on because it's all they've ever known.
41	* EarlyBirdCameo: Agent Spaghetti appears in Liv's dream at the beginning of the first chapter before showing up at the pet rental in Chapter 3.
42	* FakeOutOpening: The beginning of the first chapter has Liv fighting monsters in a corridor before finding a giant pufferfish and a cat in the desert. It turns out to be [[DreamIntro a dream Liv’s having]] the night before her high school graduation.
43	* FantasticVermin: "Street mutants” are colorful geckos with cat fur and ears. They coexist alongside rats with glowing eyes and aren't regarded as the sort of animal one would rent out as a pet.
44	* FictionalCurrency: The currency of the year 3000 is called [=ZScrip=]. The banknotes' design resembles US dollars.
45	* FlyingCar: Cars in the future are shown to be able to hover.
46	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Alix’s gaze briefly lingers on the body of Braeyleighe Smmythe, the girl whose Unizon watch Liv takes. Later on, Liv's looking through records at the library and learns [[spoiler: the two of them grew up in the same orphanage]].
47	* FutureMusic: The music produced by popular group Unanimous Girth. [[https://open.spotify.com/artist/6yMGj63HVGlV40tRuIUBGU Their songs]] make heavy use of samples and tempo changes to create a discordant sound.
48	* GlowingEyes: Many creatures shown have eyes that glow: Cats, rats, dogs...
49	* GreatOffscreenWar: A war known as "The Big Big Nuclear War" ended in 2967. Not much is known about it other than [[PortalCrossroadWorld portals beginning to appear in large numbers]] after it concluded.
50	* HighTechHexagons: The digital signboard that informs Liv she's in the year 3000 has a hexagon pattern on the corners of its screen.
51	* {{Hologram}}: Liv's friend Natalie is eventually able to visit her as a hologram by using Bluetooth to connect her VR headset to Liv's Unizon watch.
52	* IKnowWhatWeCanDoCut: Liv tells Alix about her plan to break into the morgue, which has far too many action movie elements present to be realistic. After shutting her plan down and thinking for a minute, Alix says he has an idea. The next scene has them walking through the front door and claiming they’re delivering a pet to “Josh” in order to get in.
53	* InformedAttribute: According to Liv, Z-ball is like "baseball mixed with dodgeball mixed with a crazy ass obstacle course". While the baseball and obstacle course components are obvious enough from the pictures provided, it isn't made apparent how dodgeball factors into the game.
54	* LineOfSightAlias: When Alix is trying to sneak Liv into the morgue to get her a government-issue ID watch, he has to provide a name to the receptionist at the front desk. He looks up at the phoenix mural behind the desk and gives his name as “Phoenix”.
55	* MediumShiftGag: When Liv visits one of Alix's neighbors, the house's interior and occupants are presented as a screenshot from VideoGame/TheSims3 with Liv as the only drawn element. She lampshades how bizarre the change in appearance is.
56	* MixAndMatchCritters:
57	** The street mutant has a gecko-like body and the ears and fur of a cat.
58	** The pets available to rent include a chimera with lion and pit bull features.
59	* MoodWhiplash:
60	** Liv's dream at the beginning starts off as an over-the top action movie sequence, complete with a MorphWeapon and an awesome one-liner. It takes a turn for the surreal when she opens a door and finds herself in a desert with a giant pufferfish and a green cat for company.
61	** A list of rules for a swimming pool starts off with the standard rules against running and diving, then lists "no breathing". It then adds rules such as prohibiting the introduction of sea creatures or eating live birds. The last rule is a reminder to have fun, complete with a smiley face emoticon.
62	* MyNaymeIs: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] with the name of the deceased girl whose Unizon watch Liv takes, which is "Braeyleighe Mikaylynne Smmythe". A more standard spelling would be "Brayley Micalyn Smith".
63	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The pop song that wakes Liv up in the beginning is by Rick Ghastly, an obvious spoof of [[Music/RickAstley Rick Astley]].
64	* ParodiesForDummies: One of the books Liv checks out from the library is ''Portals for Dummies'', providing an InfoDump about how portals function and some of the roles the government takes on. The sections on how portals are sustained long-term and what kind of research the government does with them are blanked out.
65	* PortalCrossroadWorld: Portals have been appearing on Earth since the end of a nuclear war in 2967, connecting to alternate universes, other time periods, and other dimensions. These portals stay open for thirty seconds at most unless they're sustained by government technology.
66	* PortalNetwork: Portals sustained with government tech can be used for reliable travel to other dimensions. Liv spots some people using such a portal to vacation in a dimension identified as "Jamacia, but with really sharp sand".
67	* ThePresentDay: The first chapter takes place on June 20, 2019, a week before the story's release.
68	* RainOfSomethingUnusual: At one point, it begins to literally rain cats and dogs. This is attributed to the general strangeness of the future.
69	* RidiculousFutureSequelisation: A movie theatre marquee visible in one of the early Instagram posts is advertising ''[[Franchise/StarWars Star Wars]] XXXIII''.
70	* RunningGag: Since Agent Spaghetti’s naming, subsequent mentions of the kitten will replace the word “spaghetti “ with another kind of pasta.
71	* ScoutOut: A pair of scouts who are made of blue fire sell Liv cookies. While traditional cookies like thin mints, tagalongs, and samoas still exist in the year 3000, “electric bleeding insect shortbread” is an option.
72	* SelfieFiend: Liv is fond of taking selfies to commemorate various moments. This includes [[SkewedPriorities while she’s being sucked through a portal]].
73	* ShadowedFaceGlowingEyes: Mr. Prez is always depicted as a shadowy figure with glowing orange eyes, even in brightly-lit environments such as atop a parade float or on a TV broadcast.
74	* ShoutOut:
75	** When Liv first arrives in the future, the narration comments that she’s [[Film/TheWizardOfOz “certainly not in Kansas anymore.”]]
76	** The pawn shop where Liv pawns off her jewelry from Claire's has a {{Toys/Furby}}, a [[{{Franchise/Pokemon}} Pikachu]] doll, a copy of [[{{Manga/Akira}} AKIRA]], and a VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards cartridge visible in the background.
77	* SigilSpam: Red eyes, associated with the government, appear ''everywhere'' except the motel Liv briefly stays at.
78	* SkewedPriorities: Liv decides to take a selfie while she’s traveling at high speed through a portal.
79	* StunnedSilence: Alix is briefly unable to find the words to react to Liv’s over-the-top plan to infiltrate a morgue.
80	* SuperCellReception: After travelling to the future, Liv's smartphone is able to make posts on social media that appear in the present day and otherwise functions as if it were still the late New 10's aside from being unable to access GPS maps.

Context Literature / LivInTheFuture