John opened the door and gestured for Whittney to follow.
He raising his hands in triumph, grinning at her.
"You can't be serious." She hissed, "Does it work?"
"I think so, I haven't turned it on yet." He said barely containing his excitement as he smiled.
Around them, wires ran everywhere, and pipes descended to unknown depths. His sensing equipment kept in a perfectly isolating state, ensuring accuracy.
"Well, go on!" Whittney said, "What are you waiting for?"
"Mostly, someone to impress!" He said grinning and setting the devices in motion.
Nothing happened for a moment and then his lasers began to etch ethereal designs into the slightly smokey air.
"Wow... no... this... its not right at all." He said, "It's almost like a multiverse, but it isn't...there are forks and bubbles in the fabric."
Whittney points at a strange image bubbling up in the fabric. "Is that... me?"
The image showed her looking sour at a restaurant.
"Why would-no it is!" John said shocked and taking notes. "It's you, and another you? Do you have a twin?"
"No...I don't." She said watching the bubble fade into the ether.
"There I am! Except..." John says, staring at the strange imp flying behind him lazily in the ghostly image. "What in the world..."
"Are these parallel universes?" Whittney says wanting to reach out and touch the images.
"I don't think so, I think... maybe... there is something wrong with our own." He says, "I think, if you look at the structure, its like a expanding network, but the nodes break off and intermingle. Its as if many variations are happening at once."
"But not all?" She guesses, seeing how the network seemed to move and shift but wasn't infinite.
"Right, time flowing slower here, but faster here, and diverging but never completely." He said pointing at a shorter and longer route through the network, both connected by a cottony flowing force.
"John, why does this...why do you show up so much?" She says looking at the strange unstable timelines clustered.
"I don't know, the machine isn't specific to me." He crossed his arms."It doesn't make any sense."
Two shadowy hooded figures stood watching the events.
Poking at the fabric of the universe one asked. "This universe is basically ready to tip over, you sure you want to do this? Just throwing outside creations in... it could be quite disastrous."
"That's the point though, to see what it does." The other says.
"I suppose this universe is resilient even if its completely off its rocker." The first replies, breaking the omniscient deity illusion a bit.
"Hose in a can was kind of a hot idea. Did all 99 of these ideas after all have to revolve around Hose admittedly?" The one known as Brandygang said.
The other figure who was known as Doclock shrugged. "I got a bit single minded for a while there." as he flipped through projections of events in the universe's various timelines.
"You don't think these avatars are too campy do you?" Doclock asked, gesturing to the robes.
The other shadowy figure held up his thumb and pointer just slightly apart.
"Ah well," Doclock said.
