Once Upon A Vast Multiverse

This is a short story that I built almost entirely from quotes and references. These mentions come from movies, stories, poems, music, etc. It was just a fun thing to create. I hope you like it. Find as many quotes as you can. I may, at some time, post the answer key.

Once Upon A Vast Multiverse

By Bryce M. Liwosz

What is that phrase you use? Oh yes. Once upon a time, a long long time ago, I can still remember, in a galaxy far far away, we followed the second star to the right, straight on ‘till morning. The world we left behind said we couldn’t handle the truth, but to us, that notion was inconceivable. We told them, they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom, and we raised on high the Goblet of Rock! Some call it arrogant. I call it confident.

Be here now. This is a recounting of the events that transpired, it is just a tribute. We’ll carry on. It doesn’t really matter, anyone can see. We are the people our parents warned us about. When life gives us limes, we make margaritas.

It started as just an idea. In the beginning, there was the word. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile. We discovered that sometimes words have two meanings.

As we wound on down the road, our shadows taller than our souls, we discovered that life is like a box of chocolates and we never knew what we were gonna get. Like a diamond in the rough, we knew the world simply could not see us through the looking glass. We looked once behind and said, not knowing the truth, “We’ll be back”. Winter was coming and the first flakes fell as we followed the Yellow Brick Road.

I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it. Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil. Thought is real. Physical is the illusion. Ironic, isn’t it?

As we walked through the valley of the shadow of Death, everyone could see the road that we walked on was paved in gold. We had the funk and we drank a funky milkshake. We really got our gob on that wonder veg. It tasted like snozzberries and butterfly milk.

That day, we aimed to misbehave, in fact, I solemnly swear that we were up to no good, and for the wonders we found, we needed a bigger boat. Just like that, wax on, wax off, our world was turned Upside Down. There was the gatekeeper, holding all the keys, and Houston, we had a problem. Beyond the gate, there was a lake full of sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads.

“Hello. Why so serious?” asked the gatekeeper. “You shall not pass until you show me the money”. And so it came to pass, that for 9 pieces of 8, he ferried us across the lake.

I whispered excitedly to my companions, “He had me at hello. Obviously there’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear”.

“Every man dies, but not every man truly lives. Is that why you are here?” asked the keeper.

“Some dance to remember. Some dance to forget. When we awoke this morning we felt the need, the need for speed, so bring us that horizon. And perhaps a martini, shaken, not stirred”

“Mankind fears what it does not understand. You see, the way is shut, lest you know thyself, so ask therefore, how am I not myself?”

We puzzled and puzzled ‘till our puzzlers were sore. We dissected that question as if he meant more, like some quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. Then before we could answer, we came to the door.

“Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?” we asked the keeper.

“The first rule is, you don’t talk about the door. The second rule is, you don’t talk about the door” was all he replied.

Then I had an epiphany, the answer to everything, and I blurted the answer, “it’s 42. How do you like them apples?” 

I’d dodged the wrench with that catch all answer and the keeper, with eyes, full of wonder, allowed us to pass. As we marched by, he said, “I don’t think that means what you think it means. I am become Death, destroyer of worlds. Luxor, nexor, burst and burn”.

“What was that?” we asked.

“Just a curse. Have a nice day”, and off he moved into the distance.

I couldn’t help but get a bit outraged. You wanna play it soft? We’ll play it soft. You wanna play it hard? Let’s play it hard.

My comrade whispered, “He was scary, but nice, like Santa”, while I replied, “After that, my guess is you’ll never hear from him again”. 

Sarcastically, I yelled over my shoulder, “In case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight. Backpfeifengesicht.” There was no way back now, but we knew, it’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything, and so it had begun. We might have been staring at Death, but there is only one thing you say to Death, not today. We will resist and bite. You see, this was our journey to infinity and beyond, and to live would be an awfully big adventure. Freedom baby, is never having to say you’re sorry.

I was thinking then that this could be heaven or this could be hell. Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Then I remembered, I don’t believe in any of this crap. I’m in charge of my own fate. And I don’t believe in the devil either. Then my companions replied, “You should. He believes in you”. Indeed, vanity is the devil’s favorite sin.

I spoke, “It’s strange”, and a fellow traveler replied, “Perhaps, who am I to judge?”. I thought to myself, not for the first time, that I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.

It was not long before we came to a mirror and spoke “mirror mirror on the wall, who is the master of this hall?”. 

A smoky face appeared in the reflection and said to us “They laugh at me because I’m different. I laugh at them because they’re all the same. You should leave now or phone home now before you start this game. This is a game for those who seek to find a way to leave their world behind.”

“Please elaborate. What sort of game is this exactly?” we asked.

“Elaborate? Then let there be light. Your ancestors called it magic and you call it science. Well, I come from a place where they’re one and the same thing, where they both shine bright like a diamond, my precious”.

“I look at the world and I notice it’s turning. Till’ I collapse, I’m loaded up and truckin’. You see mirror, not all who wander are lost. We do or do not, there is no try. We’ll play your game. We’re going off the rails on a crazy train”. It turns out life isn’t a puzzle that can be solved one time and it’s done. You wake up every day, and you solve it again.

The mirror replied “Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds — justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. You may find what you seek, the very stairway to Heaven even, or you may ride the lightning and fade to black. I’ll let you go. I can’t hold you back anymore.”

“You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes”. Just then, a man appeared from behind a curtain and produced a small table with two pills for each of us on top. “And pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”

 I said to my comrades “A day may come when the courage of men fails, but it is not this day. May the Force be with you”. I don’t always take pills offered by mirrors, but when I do, I take the red pill. I knew after that moment, I could check out anytime I wanted, but I could never leave.

I felt like the king of the world. As we swallowed those pills, the last we heard from the mirror was “May the odds be ever in your favor”. 

“What kind of world will we build in the pure imagination?”, my comrade wondered aloud.

I replied, “Hasta la vista, baby”. I turned to my companions and said “I hate to see you walk through the final door at the edge of existence… but I love to watch you leave”.

Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it. Now, we are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams. There is no power in the verse that can stop us.

We are going to be the horrified witnesses of the revelation of the true nature of the human soul.

Don’t Panic.