TO EVERYONE

[princessvegas]

[ In her domain, Julie sits in a booth, bent over the table with a stack of paper and pen. She bites the tip of her tongue in concentration, then starts writing invitations. She intends to leave them all over the Horizon, fliers more than proper addressed invites.

Soon, all of the off-worlders are able to see writing in their vision. This writing appears to simply be written on any nearby surface: a tabletop, on the page of a book in place of the text, in a pool of water. It sparkles to summon attention to itself, just enough of a twinkle to earn a glance. ]



[ It's signed at the bottom, Julie Lawry.

Soon, other thoughts may begin appearing in your vision, sparkling until they catch your eye. Your own thoughts can be broadcast too. If you put in a little effort, you can even send them directly to a specific person, or a group.

And most of you are welcome to the party. ]

Comments

[princessvegas]

Why? Did you play with those water bugs as a kid? That's the only thing I ever heard called a skitter before.

[ There is a palpable sense of trepidation in the next message. ]

Where are you?

[skitter]

No idea. Ask my dad.

Farmville. Sulfon? Solvun? However it's spelled. Gave me an apartment.

[Which she can't sleep in, because it's tiny, so she's dragged her blanket and pillow downstairs to the closed tavern.]

What/where is your domain?

[princessvegas]

Fuck. I mean, not you, just... don't worry about it.

[ Fucking hell, she needs to find responsible people ASAP. She is not equipped to deal with this. ]

It's in the Horizon. It's like this special place that the natives can't go to, and we can make anything we want here. But you gotta get someone who's already been here to bring you for your first time. And it has to be out there. Someone in Solvunn.

[skitter]

I haven't met anyone else yet. They said there are more, but-

I'm really not supposed to be here. Anyone got a dimension door going yet?

[princessvegas]

None of us are supposed to be here. That's the whole thing. They want us because we aren't from here. But there are some more of us in Solvunn, you just gotta find them. I'd give you a name but no one I know went there. Shouldn't be too hard to find someone though.

What's a dimension door?

[skitter]

Portal, gap, like the way we arrived? But the folks here were pretty certain this one was one-way. Some idiots have been opening them on my world lately, but ours are round-trip.

[princessvegas]

Uh, I didn't come through a portal. They pulled us out of this big ass well. They got portals here, but not to other worlds.

And yeah, it's one-way. Big time.

[skitter]

It was a pond but a portal is a portal. I was on Earth Bet, 2011, now I'm here in Hobbiton, 90-fuck B.C.E.

Shit.

[princessvegas]

What the hell is Earth Bet? I'm from Earth, but it was 2020. Shit, 2011, y'all are still on what, iPhone 3s?

[skitter]

Never heard of iphone, maybe that's an Earth Aleph thing? I have an OS360 - I did, I guess.

Your Earth have Capes?

[princessvegas]

Like the kind Dracula wears? They're not exactly in fashion.

[skitter]

No, people with superpowers. Like Scion? Legend?

[princessvegas]

Oh. Well, my Earth doesn't, but some other people here come Earths that do have 'em. We had one here, like a real-life superhero, and we got some people now who do it but don't have superpowers.

Everyone here is from different Earths, kind of. Most of them are pretty similar, but there's almost always something that sets each one apart.

[skitter]

That makes sense. Did your Earth have contact with others before here?

[princessvegas]

Kind of? I mean, not really but then once I got here, I found out that someone I know originally came from a different world.

[skitter]

Just found that out about some people I knew too. I mean, I've seen Star Wars from another Earth but it still weirded me out.

[princessvegas]

I guess the weird part is that you come from somewhere that has more than one Earth in it, you know? Like, everyone here might be from a different Earth, but we all still come from the only Earth we know, if that makes any sense. The person I know from another world, his original world isn't Earth, it's something else.

[skitter]

I think it's weirder that you're from 2020, 9 years ahead of me and your Earth hasn't contacted other Earths. We contacted Earth Aleph in 1986.

[princessvegas]

That's what I'm trying to tell you. There is no other Earth where I come from. We can see all the other planets anywhere close. Sure, there's probably aliens and other worlds and stuff a lot further away, but it would be so distant that it would be impossible to ever talk to or visit them. Didn't they teach you the solar system? "My very educated mother", that shit? There's a reason there's only one E-word in that memory trick.

[skitter]

They're not in our space, the other Earths. You're not gonna get in the Enterprise and go find one. They're in the exact same place as ours, overlapped perfectly, just in a different dimension. Just like this place has to be.

[princessvegas]

Then I guess the other Earths are stupid too, 'cause they haven't contacted us either.

Or, you know, they just straight up don't exist.

[skitter]

You're... kind of missing my point. I'm from Earth Bet, Earth Aleph has boring TV, we're on Earth Abraxas right now, probably, and you're from Earth Something. Same relationships between all four.

[princessvegas]

I understand what you're saying. You're talking about multiple dimensions, which if they even exist, we can't communicate between them. It doesn't matter how many Earths there are if they can't see each other or talk. And I don't buy different dimensions. From what I've learned here, it's more likely that there's one dimension but different timelines.

It's like basically every time travel movie rolled into one.

[skitter]

Isn't that kind of splitting hairs? We know Bet and Aleph ran identical timelines until 1982 but we definitely aren't now.

[princessvegas]

If superhero movies are right, there's definitely a difference.