Origins and Endings

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS. PLEASE, IF YOU ARE A NEWCOMER TO THIS SITE, DON'T READ ANY FURTHER. INSTEAD, PLEASE START THE STORY WITH THE ENTRY ENTITLED "#1".

Soundtrack is Complete

Hey everyone. I just wanted to point out that the Soundtrack is complete and on YouTube. Just check out this link and you'll be good to go! Once again, special thanks to Rory Bezecny and George Looks More Closely for that tremendous effort. George Looks More Closely is looking into an album deal which may well include the two tracks they did for Dieselworld (Mina's theme and Jacob's theme).

As soon as I can, I plan on doing a write-up on some of the backstory that fed into Dieselworld. This includes an aforementioned hilariously-awful middle school short story that influenced the character of Mark. Stay tuned!

The Conclusion

This is what happened to all of them afterward.

Jacob never saw Doctor Kai again, and You never saw Klaus again. They didn't know it at the time, but that meeting they had in The House was their goodbye. They missed them for the rest of their lives, but occasionally they dreamed of them, and that was good.

It was the Old Man who took them away, and they subtly knew this, and blamed hir for it. But ze didn't get off scot-free. Ze still had hir dreams, or dream; which ze is having now, in fact.

In hir dream, he wakes up. He is on a slab, and the last thing he remembers is being torn apart by a machine gun trap, somewhere in Asia. He screams, both in pain and in terror. Even in his wildest trips, and even in the presence of demons from the abyss, he's never been afraid before, but now, as he wakes up from the bitterness of death, he's terrified.

But dying was just a dream. He's on Coppola Station now, and as he sobs into his hands he gets a brief glimmer of the future; not far from him is a frozen man who smells like electricity and loss and planets. Soon, something will happen that will make that man wake up. And he will never be the same after he kills that man.

Even at the height of hir power, in the depths of hir Lost Stream, where Libertas has full reign and there is no suffering, Zay Arkmoor does not sleep easy.

Sometimes, when practicing their powers, Mina and Susie can see hir dreams. But as they grow older and gain more power, they know it's not kind to peer into such things. For their way is to be a much subtler one. They will show their strength in different ways.

Centuries later, Dieselworld will have many Incomputare such as they, as it is its destiny to be a land of magic; but for now, they are the sole Masters on the Earth.

The world grows and changes. As The Cascade and its predetermined systems fall apart—for indeed, it is a Cascade no more, containing but one universe—Earth-Beta-3 stabilizes and gains elements from its fallen siblings. Neon deserts and unmapped tundras become populated with new forms of life; not too dissimilar to the fuel-mutants the Empire created, but lacking the suffering of those beings. In the wake of the Empire, the people it mutilated to make into its tools die silently. The mutants starve, and eventually even the fuel-powered cyborgs and Guards shut down. With the tyranny they represented gone, new civilizations grow on the wastelands Fox made a point of creating. Life is restored to the planet.

The adventurers can smile as they settle into new homes. You and Susie return from Britain to the former fuel fields where they once lived happily. Here, Your mom and Earl are overjoyed to see that in the face of everything, they made it out alive. They celebrate in New Cenabum, which is already being rebuilt by its tenacious citizens. They help them, and in turn their houses are restored. While Susie stays behind, however, You eventually moves into the old shack where he first found Klaus' doll. He needs a reminder of his adventure as he ages.

Jacob and Mina stay near their friends, living in the market settlement not far from the farm. They each have their own house, and at the midpoint of their yards is a pair of tombstones: one for Aurel, and one for Amos. The latter simply reads, “The Slimechap: A Man Who Died”, which they think he would have found hilarious. Somehow.

Lefty Sinister doesn't have a permanent home, 'cause he's on the run from the law. He never let go of that Tommy gun, and after doing some investigative stuff on the local lore, as it were, he found out about a certain outfit that intrigued him greatly. Not long after he gets to America, the New Fennec Gang is active. After all, an old man needs somethin' to keep him goin'.

And a' course, they don't talk about the Old Fennec Gang.

Months pass, and when they do it's Jacob who is wandering outside when he bumps in Madame Levingt. He gives a cry of surprise upon seeing Her, believing Her gone alongside the Old Man, Kai, and Klaus. But She's not. She smiles as She often does and offers to have tea with him; and he agrees. For he still has some questions.

“Understandable, my dear,” She says when he mentions such a thing. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, I guess I just want to know about something I saw when I used that D8 to switch places with Amos. Y'know. After Amos was technically dead.”

“Hm...” She thinks for a little while. “I know what you're talking about.”

“Not surprising, given.”

“Ha, ha! Well, in order to explain that, I think I'll have to explain the nature of The Cascade, definitely.”

“Interesting. That was going to be my second question.”

“Good! Alright; let me start by saying that in this Multiverse, your brother was not a unique individual. But then, neither are you. Both you and Amos had alternate incarnations who are very near to this universe, who both had a decisive role in securing the creation of Earth-Beta-2; and subsequently, Earth-Beta-3, or 'Dieselworld', and Earth-Beta-4, or the 'Headhunter World'. Those Earths gain their alternate names because they're based on video games that existed on the Earth 'above' them. Your world contained a PC game called Dieselworld which in turn was the loose basis for the next level of The Cascade, Earth-Beta-3; and on Earth-Beta-3, a video game existed called Headhunter which created some of the basis for Earth-Beta-4. Because this Cascade's energies were not as strong as others, there was no Earth-Beta-5. Ultimately, this caused video games to never exist on Earth-Beta-4 entirely.

“This is how The Cascade works. A particular work of art or media will be affected in such a way that it will 'inspire' the next world; the Earth of the lower tier. Let's say a Cascade event—which I'll describe in full in a second—affected Universe-Delta, created Earth-Delta-2. On Earth-Delta-2, Cascade energies affected van Gogh's Starry Night. Earth-Delta-3 would be a world perhaps with similar landscapes to those depicted in Starry Night; Starry Night would be the prime basis for how that entire world works. From there, a painting on Delta-3 would be affected, creating Earth-Delta-4. And so on and so forth, down to Earths Delta-5, Delta-6, Delta-7, etcetera. At some point, however, the Cascade energies would run out, say on Earth-Delta-8. On Earth-Delta-8, painting would be unheard of entirely, preventing the energies from Cascading further to create Universe-Delta-9. Do you follow so far?”

“Basically. But how does a Cascade form, then?”

“Getting to that. A Cascade event is known as a Syzygy. They occur when 'storylines' of intense magnitude draw two Earths together. Their universes intersect with appropriate consequences, which exacerbates the storyline further. In fact, Syzygies may be self-generated, because Syzygy energy can flow back in time to make the magnetizing story in question happen in the first place. Usually a Syzygy is spaced between Earths of a proper distance; you'd never get both between Earth-1300 and Earth-1301, but you'd get one between Earths 1300 and 1302. There has to be a universe stuck in the middle, from which The Cascade flows.

“As you can guess then, 'your' Syzygy took place between Earth-Alpha and Earth-Gamma, eclipsing Universe-Beta. This is a fantastically important Syzygy, and a dangerous one, because Earth-Alpha is the 'Prime Earth'. It's where the most important events for the Multiverse begin. The First Enemy of the Multiverse, a sorcerer named Edward Tamaron, and the Second Enemy as well, named the King of Time, were born on Earth-Alpha.”

“Wait. Enemies of the Multiverse? That sounds important.”

“Okay. Hm. In essence, there are Three Enemies of the Multiverse. They are destined to be the most powerful beings in existence, who will come very close to destroying...everything. The First is Tamaron. The Second is the King of Time. The Third is the Emperor.”

“You's dad?”

“No. That's just a coincidence in naming. We don't know anything about the Emperor, actually. But we dread its day of coming.”

Jacob lets this thought sink in, but not for very long.

“The King of Time, meanwhile, has become infused with the power of the Time Nexus. In effect, you have already fought the Second Enemy—but this is not his final battle.”

“What?”

“Unbelievable, certainly. It's incredible that you're still alive. But the Time Nexus itself, released by the demon Kul'ul, isn't the Second Enemy's final form. It's not your destiny to fight the Second Enemy directly. That would be the job of Doctor Kai's father. His true one, not the man who adopted him, and became Inspector Fox.”

Silence ensues for a little bit.

“Your brother, meanwhile—or at least, his Earth-Gamma counterpart—has engaged the First Enemy. And that's what brings us to this present Cascade. Earth-Gamma's Amos Slimechap, along with a group of his friends and a friend of my own whom we'll call 'Iron-Mask', faced Tamaron as the events of the Syzygy. You—or, rather, Earth-Gamma's Jacob Berkley—aided him. And so it was through 'your' work that you, and indeed your entire universe, came to be.

“I take some credit away from you, though. When in the afterlife, around the time that the deal with Kurq'wes was sealed involving the Cosmic D8, you saw not only a specter of yourself, but you saw your brother vanish from existence. In reality, Amos was the bargaining chip. Kurq'wes sent his soul back in time, through the Multiversal barrier...”

“And he became his Earth-Gamma self.”

“Yes. As an infant, destined to grow up with your legacy of heroism within him. You gave him the power to create your universe, and in doing so, you've revealed your true role. You couldn't do anything in the fight against Mark except wish good luck on Mina and Susie from the sidelines, but in reality, you've created The Cascade. Provided, it took two versions of you to do so, but still.”

Jacob feels his face glow as he hears this. It's unbelievable, and gives him a lot to ponder. Holy shit.

“And I bet I can guess your last question.”

He looks up then. He's very distracted. “Hm?”

“'What's the future of Dieselworld?'”

“Oh! Yeah, that was what I was going to be asking you, honestly.”

“I figured! But I'm sorry, I shouldn't be looking around in your head anymore.” She pauses, and waits for him to smile a little. It's a sincere smile. “The tale of you and your friends in Dieselworld will end on a good note. It truly has become a world of myth. You have You to thank for that, of course; and Susie, in the end. Though you should thank Mina, and yourself as well, for making sure the world survived.

“In a few days, you'll learn hands-on what the future of Dieselworld is. It will start with You, as it did before. You'll invite you out somewhere, perhaps to one of the nearby jungles, to start exploring. And trust me when I say this: it's gonna be glorious, honey.”

Jacob's smile widens as he considers the implications.

He's not alone.

You is sitting in Your new house, also contemplating things. She's right; You does want to have the group out on another adventure, deep into the jungles, to see what sort of beasts and treasures are waiting out there. It sounds fun, if adventure is something to ever be summed as such. But, You plans on calling on them in a few days, because for now, You is busy. You is listening.

You can tap into the fuel directly, of course, thanks to Your armor. And via that, You is learning something very important about it. You held Yourself back from using it once You learned of its evils, but it was only the certain users and abusers of it that made it that way, or made it seem that way. You knows that now. For indeed, how can there be genuine, objective malice behind what is the substance of reality itself? After all, while reality can be filled with darkness, or made to seem darker, it is the light that always defines it, even in the face of tragedy. And the human spirit reflects such a thing—no matter what, it never gives up. It keeps continuing, to strive towards that light, even when knowing of oblivion, and even when days come that make the darkness seem stronger and stranger than ever.

Then, the light can be very strange as well, just as it can be very strong.

The fuel is free from evil at present, in the face of victory, and so its sound begins to filter into You. Through it, You can see the true vision of the universe incarnate; and it's a dance, an elegant pirouette of glow and dream. And in a new world of so much possibility, of such great magic, it all looks so beautiful to You. So beautiful.

I can't believe it's just the beginning, You realizes. This thought fills You as You listens to the Music of the Spheres.