The Multiversal Tourist: 1 (Patreon)

In a complete pitch-black environment, a small silhouette made of light stood on …. well, nothing.

With his head slightly cocked backwards, lips slightly open, dull expression and closed eyes, he stayed in that same posture with no knowledge of the amount of time passing by.

His hair, however, looked like it was made of luminous light glowing brightly in the dark landscape, swaying slightly despite there being no winds.

".....ugh!"

After God knows how long, a sound graced the silent surroundings as the male silhouette let out a muffled groan.

His slumped posture straightened up slowly as he rubbed his head with both arms.

His eyelids opened to reveal dull eyes with dark irises, looking around in an attempt to understand what was happening.

"Where..... where am I?"

There was clear confusion written on his face and could be heard in his voice. From left to right, up, down, no matter where he looked, all he saw was darkness.

"Ugh…" Another groan escaped from his lips yet again as he rubbed his head to relieve himself of his headache.

"Wait…. who am I?"

"Why can't I remember anything?"

"I… I can't, ..."

"You can't remember anything now, can you?" A voice said, making the male silent as he turned his head to locate where that voice was coming from.

"Who.....?"

"Don't bother looking. I'm everywhere around you. Trying to locate me isn't feasible".

There was a long period of silence as both sides said nothing. The silence continued to drag on until the male finally spoke.

"Ok, I'll take your word on that... I guess".

He said with slight confusion.

"You are wondering why you're taking all of this so calmly, aren't you? It surprises me how that's the first thing that's on your mind instead of questions like 'Where am I' or 'Who are you' if I do say so myself".

He was slightly surprised. Yes, that was precisely what was going through his mind right now.

And when he thought about it, he found his calmness surprisingly strange.

"Are you..... God? Or some kind of powerful entity or something along those lines?"

"Good. You know about the concept of God. Looks like, apart from not knowing what you are and where you came from, everything else is working just fine".

The male was caught off guard a bit.

A series of complex thoughts passed through his mind with each passing second.

"What do you mean by…. What am I? Aren't I human?" He asked.

"What makes you think you are?" The voice replied.

"..... Well, my body shape is in human form. So that makes me… Well, human, I guess?". Confusion started settling in as he continued, seemingly unsure of himself.

"I mean, there are other human shaped species in the universe. I remember there are demons with the ability to take human form. And also alien shape-shifters like the Skrulls".

"Oh, and the Martians can change their features to look like anyone. So technically, you're right. The possibility of me not being human is… Is...."

He spoke increasingly until his sentences reached a drawl. His eyes widened as he looked back towards the infinite darkness.

"Wait? How..... How do I know all this?"

"Where did I learn this knowledge from? And why can't I remember anything?"

"Oh, you're finally back to this point. The Million-dollar question. I honestly wondered how long you would take to ask me that".

"Can you please just answer my doubts?"

"Fair enough. And here I was thinking of ways to mess with you."

"... I'm sorry, what? .."

"Moving on." The voice cut in. "Easy answer, you got all that knowledge from me after we split. You have been in this void for approximately a week to put it in time standards you understand. Your consciousness digesting all the shared knowledge I have accumulated since my existence."

"Shared? Split? Existence?"

"Yes, yes and yes."

"... Hold on. When? How? Why?"

"Which one first?"

"What do you mean by shared memory? Why would I need shared memory?"

"Simply because you did not know it before". The voice said.

He was taken aback.

"Why…. Wouldn't I know…? What happened to me that caused you to bring me here?"

He couldn't understand. Did something happen to his memories? Or was he turned into an idiot, his brain reduced to mush in a freak accident or something.

"Nothing happened to you, simply because you never existed to begin with".

"I'm sorry, What?"

"Your consciousness gained existence about a week ago. Your current form does not have a physical body and is only a split portion of myself".

"You have spent the last week digesting all the knowledge that comes with it since our existence. What I deem as 'common knowledge'".

The funny scene of a phantom within the darkness performing air quotes with his fingers on the last sentence couldn't help but pop up in his mind.

But then the meaning interlaced within those words hit him.

"Are…. Are you saying that I'm you?"

"We are the same, yes. A split consciousness. It took some time for the common knowledge of the omniverse to settle within you."

"This is why you know what you know but have no memories of anything else. Because that is all I have ever known."

"So hold up a minute. I'm like your... What do you mean by the omniverse? So you're saying it actually exists? Wait..... I think I'm gonna have a migraine. What are we exactly?"

"Are we some R.O.B [random omnipotent being] who goes around granting reincarnations to transmigrators?"

"Not quite. To put it in simple terms, we are Energy".

"Energy?"

"Yes. Energy. You and I, are energy."

"... You mean like ... Light and heat? Mana or something?"

"Oh no. Not those types. Those are transmuted. We are not in some soul or spirit form, but energy in its rawest, most primal state. We can literally exist from now until the end of time with no notion of death".

Silence reigned for a while.

"That's..... enlightening, to say the least. So you're telling me that all those TV shows, movies, comic books, mangas, cartoons, are all worlds that truly exist?"

"Yes, they do. All branching from the main universe, with new ones being formed every passing day".

"Along with all the people and things in them".

"Yes".

"Ok then .... So. .. what about us? Where do we fit in the spectrum? Are there other powerful entities that randomly oversee all universes, like some omnipotent being?"

".... Maybe too much information from the perspective of the main universe wasn't a great idea".

The voice said after a long period of silence.

"Let me clear up the waters then. Our current location, is the infinite void, the space between spaces where the purest form of energy originates. Raw, infinite and formless. Think of it as the space between reality in the main universe and everything else that their fiction creates. Everything in the omniverse, every atom, every star, every reality, runs on energy drawn from here. It doesn't stay the same though as in crossing through the void, its often transmuted into other forms depending from the day the first thought was ever created. Creating beings in respective universes who use their transformed power to create their respective universes. The Presence, The One Above All, Creator gods and all that shtick. As for what we are ... Think of an infinite ocean, then think of a single drop of water, suddenly gaining enlightenment, being capable of thinking on its own our an indefinite period of time for .... Evolution or just time to form coherent thoughts process. Then apply that to usus. We are that energy, gaining consciousness. Followed which, that one drop decided to divide itself in two and you came along."

'... That .. was a lot to process.'

"Hmm. Its a peculiar phenomenon." The voice sounded like it was shrugging.

"So ... You. ..We've existed since creation began?"

"Not really sure. Though I would reckon before it."

"What do you mean by you're not sure? Don't you know everything about the omniverse?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't remember anything before I gained consciousness."

"... What?"

"Consciousness doesn't mean I suddenly inherited the memories of everything that has ever happened since the beginning of time. I only know what I've seen since I started existing."

"Oh." That made sense. "So how long has that been?"

"About ten years, give or take."

"Ten years?" He repeated. "That's... not a lot."

"It's enough to understand how things work. Enough to observe several realities and get a general understanding of the omniverse. But no, I don't see everything simultaneously. That would be overwhelming and pointless. I observe what I choose to observe, like flipping through channels on a TV."

"I see." He went through his settling memories and finding an extended amount of memories of a certain franchise. "So you settled a lot on DC?"

"Among others, yes. It was... interesting enough to warrant extended observation."

There was a pause.

"Ok so... why did you create me exactly?"

He said in those words, for lack of better terms to use at the moment.

From the knowledge he was imparted with, which came from the main universe, God like entities would find a mortal soul, instill them with various advantages and, or disadvantages as their representative champions.

Or just tools to cause chaos for their amusement.

And for more absurd reasons, such as making mistakes resulting in a mortal's early demise. So to make it up to them, poof. A new chance at life.

Of course, this was all fiction in that reality.

Was the situation similar here?

Or was he in some sort of fiction from the main universe as well?

"Isn't it obvious? I want to get out of here." The voice uttered.

"Get ... Out?"

"You heard me."

"I don't follow."

He could have sworn that he saw something roll its eyes in the darkness.

"Look around you. What do you see?"

He looked. Um ... Nothing but infinite darkness.

"Exactly. This is the void. There is nothing here except energy. Nothing here except us."

"We are the first and possibly last of our kind."

"Really?"

"That's what I hypothesize. It's unknown how long since the first thought, but I am pretty sure we predate that vastly. Trillions, quintillions of years, maybe more. All that time before we finally came along. I have connected to all energy in the void and I didn't come across a second kind of our race. Not even remotely close. It would either take many more years before another anomaly like us takes place, or possibly no other would show up until our very consciousness is extinguished. In the void, that's impossible. I didn't think it was possible for us to feel emotion, but It's been ten years, and I already feel bored of watching realities like a never ending TV channel. I want to leave."

"Why don't you just make more split consciousnesses?"

"What good would having millions of myself do? Watch endless TV together?"

"... Well, you could conjure up a kingdom or .. something."

"What makes you think we can do that here?"

"... We can't?"

"This is the Infinite Void. Nothing can exist here except us. And even if it could, I don't know how to turn energy into matter."

"But, you have infinite energy.'

"Exactly."

There was silence.

Wasn't this basically Naruto with far greater 'Chakra'?

Yes. Yes it was.

"Noted. How do we get out of here?"

"That's where you come in."

Now this was getting interesting.

"Go on."

"Energy can leave the void, however it dissipates according to the set laws of whatever universe it falls into. If we simply left the void when we were merged, we would be no exception. Our consciousness would dissipate into nothingness without a connection to the energy permeating the void."

"Which ... Is why you created me."

"Exactly. We are directly linked to each other. We feel and experience the same thing. Likewise, if one of us leaves the void, a link between us is made, and an infinite energy supply follows."

"So you stay here while I go out there."

"Yes. I anchor us to the void. Through our connection, we can draw on the infinite reservoir without severing the link and dissipating."

"Makes sense." He paused. "But, what do we do when we get there? Won't we just be a floating speck of energy?"

"Technically yes. So we need to find a physical form to contain us."

"Oh. How does the physical form thing work? Can we ... make a body?"

"That's problem number one." The voice said with a hint of genuine annoyance in it.

"Just like I said, we're raw energy. We've never been anything else. I can see how matter is structured, understand the concept, but understanding isn't the same as knowing how to do it. I am not sure we innately can. Verifying that would require us leaving the void."

"So... we can't make a body?"

"We can make something. Simply restrain our power to a definite shape, like a constant crude container made from energy. It just won't be stable or particularly good. Once we lose control for any reason, we could flood that universe in infinite power, destroying nearly everything in the process."

"I .. see. Will we?"

"For the first few times? Probably yes. There are too many variables once we descend and our control will probably be trashy since its our first time. We could try a few barren worlds that I know of though."

"Would that work?"

"Not sure really. Most of those universes are barren due to apocalyptic conditions, or cosmic disasters, and primordial entities. We could lose control for something as big as Chuthlu noticing our existence and picking a fight or as small as accidentally getting bumped into by a fly. Maybe even radiation air or cosmic gases permeating the environment ... You never know really. This is technically new territory for us. Plus I never really payed attention to many barren universes so."

"..."

"Well, we have to start somewhere, don't we?"

"I guess. Though can't we just inhabit an already existing physical body or something?"

"You mean like ... Soul possession?"

"Yeah, something like that. I mean, a physical form would give better control, wouldn't it? Or am I missing something?"

"That's actually not a bad idea. Though it might have to be dead. The resistance from trying to take over a living body will  ... Well, you get the gist of it. Plus we might still need to restrain ourselves because endless power might just very well shatter it. It would be like placing the sun into a bottle."

"It's worth a try though."

"Yep."

"Alright. So which world are we going to?"

"Once we figure things out? DC or Marvel."

"Any particular reason?"

"Both are chaotic. Gods, aliens, magic, meta-humans, mutants. Plenty of materials to work with. Plenty of things to experience, a few I want to understand and some interesting people to meet. And it's familiar enough from what we've observed that we won't be going in completely blind."

"People huh?"

"Yep. Why?"

"Fair enough." He said. "So w

hen do we start?"

"Now."

"Now?"

"Unless you'd rather stay here and chat for another week."

"... Point taken."

"Good. Then let's begin."

The voice faded, and the silhouette suddenly went dark.

Time passed.

Until Nine Hours, Two Minutes And Five Hundred And Thirty Three Destroyed Realities Later