Chapter #?: How Big Can It Really Be?
She was wandering around city hall looking for the Dev shrine after completely losing track of the signs that pointed the way when she came across an old man sitting on a bench. He had the appearance that one hundred years old would be an underestimation of his age. His dark skin resembles tree bark with deep crevasses. Looking at the man, she left the touch of nature, wood and leaves. It was as if she was standing under a tall tree protected from the sun. Something strange and powerful washed around her, but one on her skin, something inside of her she could not name. He was a being of something else. A small nameless touch inside of her told her, he was just playing at being a man. The man’s mouth was a knife slit, and he was wearing an animal hide jacket with a light yellow coloring, and many matching long cords. He had a classic cane made of dark red wood and wore blue jeans. The man’s hair was short, messy, and black as if the only thing that time left untouched on this man was the color of his hair.
Jennifer almost passed him, but his jacket caught her eye. Without thinking, she blurted out , “Is that a deer hide jacket?”
The old man lifted his head with unopened eyes to face Jennifer. “It is a deer skin jacket.”
“It is a very nice jacket.” Jennifer spoke honestly.
A younger voice came from down the hall. “It’s old school. I prefer a new suit.”
There was something off. She could not place what it was.
The new speaker was a man who had the head of an orca. Her skin was touched with a cold, her mind took in the killer whale, questioning if he was the boy on the cover of the book she’d read in the library. He wore a cream white suit with black pinstripes and black pockets. The orca-man’s limbs were human, at the end of his arms he had hands that had at least one gold or silver ring on each finger. He wore expensive looking watches. The one on his left arm was gold, and the one on the right was silver. The orca-man wore no shirt, displaying the physique of a professional bodybuilder. In spite of not wearing a shirt, he wore a black vest and a matching tie. The tie covered where the orca flesh met the human flesh. His mouth had a smile that revealed sharpened, pillared teeth spaced far apart. The black and white colors and sleek streamlined large dorsal fin reminded Jennifer of a punk hair style.
The orca-man did a spin, like a catwalk model having reached the end of the runway, and ended with a flourish with his left arm across his chest and his right arm out straight. It was off somehow, about a hand width she could feel embers bushing up against her, calling by pin pricks of ice. She was unable to explain the feeling, looking at the large black and white head of the creature, she knew the only reason she could feel such things was due to the proximity of being with one far more powerful than her. He bowed deeply, looking at Jennifer straight on, smiling, and said, “I’m new, so I have no name for the Devs to take. And may I say what a pleasure it is to meet a descendant of the giants. They were always my favorite.” He took Jennifer’s hand and gave it a kiss.
Something off, something that was causing an itch in her mind that she could not scratch. She took a seat on the empty section of the bench, not taking her eyes off of the killer whale man.
The old man spoke. “I am so old the Devs have forgotten my name, so they cannot take it. I would not take what this one offers.” He made no movements but was clearly referring to the orca-man.
“Hello, my name is Just Jennifer. And umm, I was searching for the Devs shrine or trickster sprites to talk about leveling options?” The apprehension gripped her when speaking to the two. She realized that she was sitting beside the old man, but did not remember sitting down. The orca-man before her seemed to fall into one of the two candidates she was seeking. The old man’s slip of a mouth produced a carved smile, and if possible, the orca-man’s smile broadened.
Although disturbed by the pair, she had to keep referring to them in her mind as an old man and an orca-man. For some reason she was having trouble distinguishing the two. She continued with the introductions. “And this is Kevin. He’s a parallel I met yesterday.”
Both the orca-man and the old man spoke as one. “We know.”
Only the orca-man continued, motioning to the old man. “And that one speaks too much. I have chosen to ignore him. So, my lady, what is a good girl like you doing talking to someone like me?” He didn’t let Jennifer answer the question. “Well, I could offer you some things to make some real changes, powers that can help you burn down those barriers you so want to tear down.”
Jennifer was taken aback. A trickster spirit was offering a deal. Every hair on her body stood on end. In that moment, she knew two things, her heart beat hard and loud, and there was no other noise in the hallway. Gone were the normal background noises of the building, and everyone had disappeared. A small winged insect was motionless, mid flap near the wall. A quick look around informed her that Kevin, Rover, and even Woozle were absent from the scene. All of the alarms in her mind were going off. She turned her gaze to the eyes of the old man and the orca-man, studying them. The orca still wore a wide smile, but his eyes were now closed. As for the old man, his eyes remained closed, but the smallest curls of a smile played at the edge of his mouth.
Something just is not right. Thoughts kept tugging at her mind. Looking around, she realized there were two people in front of her. One was an orca sitting where a man’s head should be and an old man. They were speaking to her. She needed to pay attention.
“I do want to make the world a better place, and some things could be changed for the better.” Though confident in her belief, she let the words come slowly as her beating heart told her she should not be racing into this situation.
Her palms were warm and sweating. There was something just a bit off. She needed to focus on details like how one was an Orca-man and the other an old man, or for some reason, she would forget they were there.
“Do not be so vague. You are leaving so much room in your words. The turtle we are on could fly between them.” The old man’s words came deep and meaningfully.
Words, Jennifer needed to use her words. Maybe saying something would off balance the orca-man and buy herself time to think. “Why are you dressed so well? Do you have a party to go to?”
“If you cannot be good, you may as well look good. To be the one to make the changes you want, good is not going to get you there.” His words dripped like honey. “Change always requires someone to get hurt.”
“I do want to be good, but I do not want to hurt.” Something clicked in her mind as if she found a puzzle piece she did not know she was missing. Neither of the two before her had names, so the Devs could not find them. “I was copied to get here. How did you two come to be here?” Her brows knit together as she asked the question, attempting to buy time.
The old man answered first. “A friend was returning a favor, and I came from a turtle island to this turtle world. Turtle island was dead.”
The orca harrumphed at the old man. “Where I came from, the world was running headlong into the unmovable force and was most certainly not an unstoppable force. So, I took the first train I saw.” He seemed proud of his actions.
“You both came from timelines that were ending. One with the help of a friend, the other by train?” she asked, simplifying what she was being told but unsure what to make of the train.
“I came here by way of my own power.” An edge of warning creeped into the orca’s voice.
“One came by way of their own power, the other with the help of a friend.” Jennifer clarified out loud.
“Yes, and . . .” the orca-man rolled a hand in a circular motion trying to get Jennifer to continue.
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Her heart slowed, giving her body’s energy to her mind as she tried to process what the orca-man hinted at. She knew He was trying to lead her somewhere but she did not know from where or where to.
It was her turn to speak but with what, a conclusion? Jennifer had no conclusions, but like any child, she had more questions. “How can timelines end? The universe I came from was supposed to be infinite, and with every choice we make, we make a new timeline. So, infinite timelines, with infinite choices, in infinite space . . .” She let her voice trail off while she processed what she knew.
The world slowed down for a moment. Both the old man and the Orca stopped moving.
the old man chuckled as he said, “Infinitely finite.”
“You can lead a horse to a power station, but you can’t make them an engineer,” the orca said dispassionately, then glared at the old man.
This was confusing. She needed to focus, but the thought of the two before her seemed to drift away from her mind unless she focused on the two before her.
The orca was visibly frustrated with his arms crossed in front of him. “How do I explain to an ant who I want to make into a giant when they are in the multiverse?” After a moment, the orca threw up his hands. “How do I explain to someone who thinks they are big that they are in fact tiny, when someone, someone,” he used both hands to point at himself, “wants to take that tiny person and make them giant?”
The old man took on the tone of a lecturer. “The friend that brought me here explained it like this. Imagine a bracelet that is thin and curved. It’s wrapped around your wrist, but the two edges on the bottom of the bracelet never touch. Those two edges that were closest together were both the ones and zeroes, the alphas and omegas, both the beginning and the end.”
“Which one is the beginning and the end?’’ Jennifer questioned.
Without missing a beat, the old man continued, “Both the beginnings and the ends. The two edges are the closest together in reality, but the furthest apart on the bracelet. The ends would go from zeros or ones, to twos, to fours, to billions very quickly.”
“I can feel an edge of the bracelet but not a second edge,” the orca-man said soberly before letting the old man continue.
Jennifer closed her eyes so she could picture a bracelet in her mind. The moment her eyes were shut, her mind screamed a warning, shooting her eyes back open. She needed to concentrate on something.
“With numbers, we can have an infinite number of numbers. We have prime numbers, which are whole numbers that can only be divisible by itself and the number one. Prime numbers must also be infinite. But they can never be so infinite that there are a greater number of prime numbers than non-prime numbers. So, there are different sizes of infinite.”
The orca interjected louder than the old man, “There are also pairs of prime numbers like one and three, eleven and thirteen, ninety-one and ninety-three, these numbers become farther and farther apart, but must also go on forever even if they are rarer. With timelines, there are forces at play that limit the infinite. He and I both know this.”
“So, timelines are like prime numbers or pairs of prime numbers, but they have a value of infinite that is a lesser infinite than something else.” Jennifer's words were a reflection of her stumbling to understand the concept.
“That bracelet is wider in the middle. Either side of the middle is getting smaller because timelines get cut off,” the orca-man said with a hand chop to punctuate his words.
The old man added to his lecture. “Or the timelines get merged. That is why some people remember things like the great freedom fighter of a faraway land who was killed in the past decade, when he is really alive.”
“Or they remember different names for a family of bears in a children’s book.” As he spoke, the orca’s tone conveyed an eye roll even though he had not opened his eyes yet.
“The Dev that made the world smartly, powerfully, and controlled” Sorrow laced the old man’s voice, but Jennifer did not know why.
“And the Dev had the drive to complete the project that we now live, work and play on. Forever taking his cut.” The orca may as well have been painted green with envy from the way he spoke.
She could not think of anything but the orca-man and the old man. It was the only way she kept them in her memory. Even blinking caused her to forget who she was speaking to. Once she saw them, she recognised them, and something in her mind told her it would be important to remember this encounter.
Aged marked his tone as elderly man spoke. “My friend suggested there were two basic ways to create a new timeline. Along each string of atoms can be thought of as a single timeline. This line is straight, until it is not. One string is added next to or on top of the first line, creating a mass. That bit of creation of something that is straight at every point, becomes a curved mass. This is from where we are on the bracelet. The first way to create a new timeline was to create a choice in the universe so great that the universe is forced to create a new timeline. It is not as simple as just choosing to go right rather than left. History for all that it is, is uncaring on small things. There must be something that affects the change so much that there is no choice but for the universe itself to split, so it can see what difference that choice really makes. The second way—the most common way—is for a timeline to create a simulation of a timeline, a simulation so great that it too could create a simulation.” The old man spoke with the clarity of understanding but in a way that made Jennifer feel like she was still missing something or a lot of somethings.
Jennifer focused on the Orca-man’s words, making sure to keep the old man in her view the whole time. “So, rather than turtles standing on turtles, it’s now simulations of simulations, and mad men pointing at the horizon saying the earth is flat or saying that the moon is a hologram because they have never tried to see what is over the horizon. We are who and what we are, it doesn't really matter why.”
He smoothed out his suit as he continued his lecture. “The Dev made a simulation but was somehow able to move the simulation out of the line of simulations. This simulation interacts with other timelines in a way that appears to be a game to most of those timelines. So, this simulation is affecting and is affected by so many timelines that it’s now its own timeline. If one of the timelines it’s affecting ends, this timeline will continue. This timeline cannot end unless all other timelines it interacts with end.”
Without opening his eyes, the Orca man turned to face Jennifer directly. His mouth already wide, made a smile that sent a shiver down her back. “So, The Dev made this world his lifeboat to the end of time. I intend to make this boat my own and ride it to the end. You can add your paddle to mine and help steer the boat.”
Jennifer’s head was spinning, trying to make sense of what these two were saying, but she was starting to see what the orca was offering.
Her mind was confused. They were playing a game at a level beyond her, she was here for help with her level. “So, I’m looking for a power that will return the vials of my potions, or a building power that will let me make things like a house.”
The orca-man's words swam from his mouth like music from a master musician. “Oh, I can do that easily my dear, that is only two powers out of the five I can give. And with my powers undefined and you being the first to follow me, you would have a great say in how my powers grow. Do you want the vials returned to you by fin or feather?”
“In exchange for?” Jennifer was leaning in, waiting for the catch.
“This world, like any other, is run on favors. A favor here and a favor there. All in the name of good, of course. Me offering you a power is just me affecting the world I now find myself in, much like yourself.” The orca’s words sounded like honey to Jennifer’s ears, inviting with sweetness but also an invitation to bees. Bees are known to sting.
“The bullet train to the infernal levels is made of gold smelted from good intentions.” The old man quoted a proverb to her, reinforcing the sense of danger.
“If you are willing to talk to the devil, you have already made the deal. You are just haggling over price.” Jennifer quoted back a proverb at the old man, causing him to open his eyes and turn to her. “And better the devil you know,” she said.
This offer was not something that happens often. She wanted to make a choice. Her mind wandered to the mayor. He too gave her an offer leaving out a choice that she could say no.
“There are other options.” Her words were not firm but let the statement hang in the air.
She knew her choices were accepting an offer from the Orca-man in his fine suit or asking the old man if he would grant the power. There was no doubt in her mind the old man in his traveling leathers would be able to grant the powers. Why would he be here, he came from another place just like the Orca. The difference is how he got here. Both nameless, both radiating power she could not explain. She did not know what either of the two beings would be asking in exchange. It came down to accepting an offer, asking for an offer, or walking away. The fact that her own mind would not keep either of the beings in her memory while only accepting the most superficial information about them, she wanted to ask one question before making her decision.
She moved her mouth, but it was dry.
Before her words could escape, both the beings spoke in unison. “Names carry power and are not things to be shared so lightly.”
The old man continued, “We have but a short time, and you know your choices. Ask the goblins for their names. Now make your choice.”
Her lips curled in a scared smile. Nodding, she made her choice. It was the best choice she could make. Powers undefined were powers that could make change. Change to make the world a better place. She wanted the power. She needed the power. Confidence grew in her. She straightened her back, She knew her choice and made it.