I… uh…

Where am I?

Silence. A quietness so empty, that it deafens all who hear it. This is where Lucas found himself when he regained his senses, if he could even call them that.
A vast ocean of darkness stood before him and within him. It was terrifyingly enormous yet crushingly small. Nothing existed here, aside from himself, and his inaudible voice he tried to speak from his nonexistent mouth.

W-who-
Ok, who are you and what are you talking about?

A voice that was seemingly only a buzz in the boy's ear up until now was now speaking as clearly he had ever heard, and might as well be the only thing he was hearing, even his own thoughts were muffled compared to her unfamiliar, regal voice.

Are you narrating? Why are you narrating?

To not have you be lost in the eternal void that you’re currently residing in, you’re welcome.

Oh.

Oh hey, someone new! Howdy!

Wha- who are- Who are either of you people?

I am Skyber, the goddess of existence, reality incarnate; among other things.

And I'm Nova!

...Just nova? No fancy title or anything?

Oh, I'm the manifestation of the void and inexistence!

Oh. So, I’m seeing God and Satan. Am I dead already?

Would you like to be?

Hey, no need to be rude!

I’m… not dead?

Not really, no.

So I’m still alive?

I wouldn’t call it that.

So am I or am I not still alive?

It’s complicated.

It’s.. complicated.

A- god my head hurts.

You don’t have a head.

Could you just… take it easy on me?

Yeah, skyb, let the new kid get used to this.

Fine, fine… Neither of us have been here for a while either.

It’s sort of refreshing, you know? Having a place where nothing happens, just to relax.

Speak for yourself, I have to rebuild this whole thing now.
“Relaxing” is not how I’d describe it.

Rebuild? Like, rebuild the school? Did I break the school?

A tad more, you broke reality as a whole.

I b-WHAT?!

Hey!

What? He did.

Let me take this before you traumatize the kid.

That would… be appreciated.

So, what do you want to know about, pal?

I think I should start with the basics: where even are we?

We’re in a featureless void. Whenever reality breaks for one reason or another, the people who can survive such an event - usually only consisting of me and Skyber - come here to try and sort out whatever broke reality out.

Yeah, the fact that you’re also here is something I have plenty of questions about.

I wouldn’t be able to fill you in there; I barely know what happened myself.

Oh, alright. Could you try telling us what happened before you found yourself here? It might help us figure out what made everything break.

Show us on the doll where existence touched you.

Skyber.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

So, I was having a normal day, you know, just up and about my business… All of a sudden I just started to notice that things weren’t, making sense? Like, things were disappearing and I didn’t know anything about one of my oldest friends.

OH. He figured it out, is what happened.

This is the first time someone else noticed, right?

Noticed what?

I think there was this one other guy who just, wouldn’t listen at all and got lost here. Long gone that one.

Um, guys?

No, no, I meant a non-real character that noticed.

I don’t think any real character ever noticed, either.

Excuse me?

Oh, sorry! What did you ask?

What was it that I “realized” that caused everything to break?

That your reality is fake.

...oh.

Does anything I say mean anything to you?

He figured it out already. The longer he takes to come to terms with it, the worse off he’ll be.

No, no, it’s alright, I got it, it’s just that… It’s hard to swallow, you know? I figured that something was up with reality, but realizing that it was all fake is…

Tough. I get you, I get you.

Existential crises are… not fun, I'll give you that much. But it isn't as bad as it sounds, and trust me I'm not one to be an optimistic.

Luke Hiyo? What kind of name is that?

Wait, is that my name?

It seems to be. As I was saying,

Breaking down life as a whole, you'd come to realize in life there are only two states of being. The simplest of binaries.

Existing, and not existing.

Right now, thanks to you I take it, nothing exists. Or at least has stopped to exist momentarily until we clear whatever it is that you did.

It would usually be a matter of a second to fix but due to circumstances out of my or Nova's control, I'm not exactly the white bearded omnipotent God you were expecting. I'm rather limited in what I can do.

We have to keep up appearances so we don't make people question their fictitious existence! Not as easy as it sounds but we got a few thousands of years of practice!

Keeping up appearances? You two are on earth?

We’re in ERA, silly!

You are?!

I am the towering dragoness administration advised you to stay away from, And satan over here is a psychedelic shapeshifter.

Hey, don’t call me that! :<

I- how did you just make that noise with your mouth.

We don’t have mouths right now.

What noise?

You know, the ‘mmmm’ noise! The angry one you made!

Oh, :

YES! What kind of noise is that?!

It isn’t. We’re not actually talking.

When we said there’s nothing, there is NOOOTHING.

We’re basically just all projecting our thoughts into one another.

Ah, oh, alright.

You sound shockingly unphased by this.

I’m starting to grow kind of numb to these discoveries.

Atta boy.

So, we’ve talked about ourselves, but who are you, Luke?

What do you mean?

You know… what do you like, your favorite cartoon, hobbies? Things that make you, you!

Oh, I mean… Up until five minutes ago, I only had one friend, and I barely even remember him before that, so he’s probably another fake memory I just got. I guess “I don’t know” is the only answer. Hell, even my name I only just found out about.

That’s unusual.

Unusual? Why specifically is it unusual?

There are typically two types of people in this world: “Real” and “Not Real.”
The first type have a name, memories, and personality, and the second type, well, don’t have all that.

So, up until now, I wasn’t real?

You, your friend, and everyone you knew most likely. It's not exactly "not real" but the explanation is far more complex than what I am willing to explain right now.

And those who are real are Splats, James, and Leaf?

Yes, but that’s not everyone. There are a lot of “real” people who walk among us, and we’re not 100% sure what does or doesn’t make someone real. Sometimes someone who wasn’t real suddenly is, and sometimes someone who was real for months at a time just stops being real.

There are a few of us that have lasted more than everyone else though, like me and skyb.

Oh, ok. Alright. So, I should start getting a personality and memories now?

Hope so!

You seem to have plenty of personality to go off of already, perhaps it already started.

Oh, well, funny story about that…

By my horns, what now?

I kind of intentionally ran away from the thing that was turning me real and giving me memories.

...Ah. Great. Perfect. Well, why didn’t you start with that? This makes my job fixing this whole thing a hell of a lot easier.

I’m assuming that was bad of me.

What made you figure that out, the endless void?

Call it a hunch.

Lovely.

So, I guess that means you get to come up with your own backstory?

I guess it does. Wow, I can really be anything?

Anything your heart will desire. Within limits of course … so I guess not anything. But you get a lot of options.

What are the limits, just so I know?

If you’re something stupid like the son of a greek god who rules a long lost kingdom and is better than everyone else at everything and anything that might pop up at a given opportunity I will erase you from existence the next time I need to do this thing. Hell, it might not even work and you'll be stuck in an endless limbo neither of us would be able to pull you out of, even if we wanted to.

We won't.

Just don’t make everyone else feel lesser, ever heard of a mary sue?

Yeah, I figured that’d be one of the rules.

You should also probably think of some sort of physical appearance. Something than the generic garb you assumed you wore till now, maybe a unique hairstyle to make you stand out? I'm afraid we can't change the color though, being blonde is in your soul. Apparently.

Everyone who’s real gets an outfit!

Any requirements?

As long as you’re not with your tits out.

That sounded particularly spiteful.

Let’s not bring that one up.

I have awful taste, I’ll probably go just really casually.

That works!

Can't be worse than what I've seen some students wear on campus. Then again, I am prone to being disappointed.

You weren't kidding about the optimistic bit.

She's an acquired taste. Mmmm…~

Stop that.

So… how do we get outta here?

I suppose you could treat this as some sort of a "short circuit" in reality, when a paradox occurs and reality snaps in half, we end up here. I fix the issue while Nova holds the damages. Seeing you were the cause of it, all you have to do is make up your new-old life, think of how you want to look and I'll pull the switch so to speak- in terms that I can use on someone from the 3rd dimension.

Wouldn't that make every use of an Electi ability a paradox too? Last time I checked shooting lasers from your eyes or freezing stuff with your hands is not physically possible.

How curious of you. I would love to answer your questions but perhaps we could discuss further under more favorable circumstances? Not in the void, for example?

Yeah that's fair. Before you snap your fingers though, how do I... you know, not break reality again?

Stop being so nosy, dum dum!

Uh…

Consider reality as a finely woven cloth. Your recently discovered ability allows you to gaze through the seams and see what it is really made of, but it’s still made of little strings. Pull too hard on a loose thread, and it will start to break apart.

Don’t question it!

Basically.

Alright, got it. Hope I did, at least.

Whenever you’re ready, say the word and I’ll put us back into our normal universe.

How does that work, by the way?

I really cannot be bothered to explain it.

Aw.

Alright, in any case, we should be going back in three…

Two…

Hold on to your butts!

One.