You *are* the writer! Gali in the "Universe - Noncanon" segments is your fictional self-insert character! Those are fanfiction segments for the Chronicles of the Shadow Nebula. In the fictional Nebulaverse, people do have magic, although the "IRL"/"Online" world is basically our world.
Viewing post in A Paradox Between Worlds: IFComp Edition comments
Gali isn't necessarily a self-insert; they're just the main character of the story that the PC is writing. They can be portrayed in different ways, whether it's the PC's self-insert or just as a vehicle to explore the plot. You don't have to interpret Gali as either "your" self-insert or the in-game PC's self-insert.
Yeah, I don't have to, but if I don't, then I'm kinda just... not at all invested in any choices relating to her. I don't think that's anything against the game, I'm just not very interested in that style of game. (Also -- they? I thought Gali canonically used she/her pronouns. Maybe I misinterpreted.)
Okay, um... I'm going to try to explain the game a little here.
There are three layers to the game: Online, which is where the blogging takes place and is the bulk of the game; Universe - Canon, which is the "canon" Chronicles of the Shadow Nebula written by GTM (it's a story-within-a-story without choices since it's already written), and Universe - Noncanon, which is where all of the fanfiction goes (which is a different story-within-a-story, with choices). Magic exists in the Chronicles of the Shadow Nebula; both the Canon and Noncanon universes include magic and stuff, as the Noncanon universe is built off the Canon universe.
In the Canon Universe, Gali is a (presumably cis) boy and is the main character of the story. In the Noncanon Universe, Gali can be any gender. The first fanfic shown, Luna's fanfic, has Gali as a trans girl. The PC's fanfic doesn't have to follow any of those. In the PC's fanfic, Gali is just a perspective character; they don't necessarily have a set personality. I'm going to be working on this for the post-comp release, which will hopefully have more options for defining Gali's (and everyone else's) personalities in the Universe - Noncanon.
Also, the Universe - Noncanon parts of the story are less important overall than the Online segments, and they can be skipped later on.
Sorry, is this too complicated?
Oh. Ok. I didn't realize there were multiple stories being written here, and I took what is apparently Luna's fanfic to be both 1) the canon and 2) what I'm apparently writing.
So in the game, I'm writing a fanfic.
That definitely clarifies what's going on, and also tells me I have zero interest because I don't want to write a fanfic, of anything, at all, ever, in real life or in a game.