ch 30 The State of the multiverse

                                    

                                          
Ch 30 the State of the multiverse 
Cross and Core sat down on Core’s living room floor.
The floor, because Core didn’t have many chairs since they barely used the house anyway. And the one couch she did have was ruined when Chara spilled ketchup on it. Normally, Cross would hate the floor, thinking of all the mortal germs on it, which would disgust him, but currently, he was too preoccupied with thoughts of work.
And server owner above, there is a LOT of work. What the heck happened??? He took his eyes off the multiverse for a few thousand years, and suddenly it was a mess.
He forgot just how fast mortals could ruin and improve their lives.
The two of them were staring at a magical map of the multiverse. It showed every AU and AT in existence.
“So many copies…” he muttered. “Why? How??”
“Ink made those,” Core answered. “He's been making them for years now. Did you really not see this happen?” Core asked, so bluntly and unaware that they pierced Cross in the chest.
Cross stiffened, “I…” His eyes looked down at the ground. “I was…busy.” Busy ignoring everything and sleeping in X-Tale, but hey, a few hundred years pass by like mere seconds to gods, so can you really blame him for taking an extra long nap?
Cross coughed into his fist and turned back to the map. “Anyway, this—” he pointed to the map “—is a mess. I opened this up thinking I’d find some sort of explanation as to why Horrortale is, well, horrible, but this?” He zoomed out on the map. The map had a color-coding system: Red for AU’s, Blue for AT’s, and Pink for the copies.
The map was almost completely covered by the color pink.
“It’s an even bigger problem,” Cross rubbed his forehead. “So Ink? That squatter idiot did this?”
Core blinked. “D-did you just call the creator a squatter? The creator of AU’s, a squatter?” Did he just call Ink a squatter?
Cross glared at them, and with a flick of his finger, a small bone hit Core on the head, making them lose balance and fall on their back. “The FUCK are you calling the creator? I’M RIGHT HERE!” He crossed his arms. “That forgetful son of a BITCH is nothing but a squatter in this universe. I’M THE CREATOR. I make the AU’s; all that bitch has done is spread trash copies around MY MULTIVERSE!” He threw his hands up in exasperation. “I let him stay, and this is how he repays me??”
“Wait—what?” Core shook their head in confusion. “D-do you and Ink know each other?”
“Amnesia’s child probably forgot,” Cross huffed. He turned back to the map. “Look at this! The copies have completely outnumbered the AU’s and AT’s!”
Core frowned. “What’s an AT?”
Cross looked at her and sighed. “You call most of them AU’s, but they’re not AU’s. AT stands for Alternate Timeline. An example would be Killertale. It started as a classic universe, but the story changed from the original due to Killer’s deal with the player, which makes it an AT. Its origin is still the classic timeline; it just ended differently.
An AU is where most, if not everything, is different from the original. Take Underfell for example. Its whole story, even the way the characters act, is different from the classic ones.”
Cross turned back to the map. “AT’s form naturally from minor and major events. It could be something as big as finally making it to the surface while the original hasn’t, or something as small as choosing to eat a banana when the original chose an apple.”
He pointed to the AU’s. “AU’s are created by me or the server owner. These AU’s create their own AT’s. They are essential for knowing how different actions can lead to different stories. For each AU, there are around 2-3 copies, just in case they somehow find a way to travel the universe.” Cross scratched his head. “I’m still not sure how they did it, but they did,” he sighed. “The original AU’s cannot be touched or entered by any alternates or other AU’s to avoid any conflict in the space. The universe is a wide space with many AU’s and AT’s and a few copies.” He glared. “It’s supposed to be, but it seems like Ink has been filling my multiverse with nothing but trash copies.”
“Is that bad?” Core asked. “The universe is a wide place,” they said with outstretched arms. “It should be fine, right?”
“No,” Cross shook his head. “Contrary to popular belief, the multiverse is not infinite. If it gets too cramped with all the trash copies, AU’s, and AT’s, it will explode.” He waved his hands. “I CAN expand the multiverse, but that would require negotiating with the admin of the neighboring multiverse or, even better,” he stared them down, a shadow and a grin on his face, “devouring it completely.” Cross then shrugged as if it was nothing. “The admin there is an even bigger hassle to deal with than this—” he pointed at the map “—problem, so we’re not going to do that.”
Core, despite being completely monochrome, felt like their face got paler than it was. “That can…happen?”
“Yes.”
“There are other multiverses?” Their eyes widened.
Cross shrugged. “Of course, we’re not alone after all. Many different multiverses are created by many different creators and fandoms,” he waved his hands.
Core nodded. “Has…” they bit their lip. “The devouring thing…ever happened before?” They asked nervously, hoping the answer would be no.
Instead, Cross looked them in the eye, no expression on his face, his mouth opened, and he asked, “How do you think this multiverse grew so big?”
Core’s eyes widened, their breathing stopped. “W-what?”
“This multiverse,” Cross waved his hand around, “is five times larger than it should be.” He pointed to himself. “I took down five multiverses back in the day.”
Core couldn’t believe it. Five multiverses? How? When? Did he kill them? Did he— “Wait.” Core’s eyes widened. “Is this what you meant when you called Ink a squatter?! Is he from one of those multiverses that you took down?!”
It was silent for a bit.
Cross put his palm on his cheek and closed his eyes. “Hmm…nah.” He shook his head. “Probably not, but I can’t really remember. I’ll check the documents later.”
Cross waved his hand, and the map disappeared. “For now though…” He flicked his finger, and mountains of boxes filled with food appeared in the center of the house. “Why don’t you take these to Horrortale? They should trust a multiverse-known helper more than an admin they don’t even know about.”
“For now…” He stood up and stretched his bones, hearing them pop. “I’m gonna get Fresh’s little friend to help with getting rid of the copies.” He put his hands on his hips and smiled. “Call it divine intervention, if you will.”
“Of course…” Core responded, their mind still lagging from the amount of information given.
“All right then,” Cross looked around. “Have you seen my coat?”
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All the things about AU and AT are made up so theh might not actually work like that but it's my fic so-
This took so long, I'm so busy sorry.
school is awful, like, what DO YOU MEAN I HAVE 3MAJOR EXTREMELY HEADACHE INDUSCING AND TIME CONSUMING AND OTHER ACTIVETIES DUE BY THE END OF THE MONTH??
Please enjoy and leave a comment (helps get rid of the stress)
- Lunaria