OK, so this little plot bunny started attacking my ankles after a conversation with some new buddies on facebook and after reading The Journal, Excerpt 1 by Monsters of NY. Please tell me what you think of it. But remember, all flamers will be sacrificed to the many candles I own. Constructive criticism oh the other hand, is welcome. Revised.
Disclaimer: I do not own any turtles, rats or licensing rights to TMNT. I do, however, hold sway over the Library and the Librarian. Please ask if you wish to borrow.
There's more than one Prime
Raphael watched the woman before him, his teeth grinding in his frustration. His eyes narrowed into a glare as he stood in the middle of the room. The two of them were currently in the kitchen of a two bedroom apartment. In the living room, some comedian was going on about a raccoon biting some idiots nipple off; while the woman in question was making a no bake cheesecake. She didn't seem to care about his glaring as she danced around him to get to the red microwave sitting on the table to his left.
"Are you going to keep brooding, or are you going to ask a question?" She set the microwave for 30 seconds and started it. Turning to look at him, she kept an ear trained on the device behind her.
"Who da shell are you?" Raph finally said, the corners of his mouth putting back as he frowned at her. She sighed, leaning back against the table and crossing her arms as she considered her words. Her stalling was really starting to get on his nerves.
"As I said to you and your brothers when you first go here, I am the Librarian. This place is one of the many rooms that change to suite the users need," She answered very carefully. Most of her words were well practiced. This was not the first time she had needed to reiterate her words, and it wouldn't be the last.
"And what does that mean, exactly?" Raph nearly hissed through his teeth. His anger and frustration was starting boil, very much like the butter in the microwave. He watched her turn to it and pull out the bowl carefully.
"Well, Donatello did say you four already had experience with multi-verses." She chewed on her lip as she tried to think of a way to convey the purpose of the Library. Dumping in the crushed graham crackers and four tablespoons of sugar into the melted butter seemed to spark an idea.
"Okey, so you know that there are multiple universes, in which you and your brothers exist." Here he gave a very gruff nod, remembering the whole thing with the Shredder and the two other different versions of his family. His family had nearly been wiped out when the Shred-head had tried to do destroy the turtles from what he had called Turtle Prime.
"Well the library is kind of like the net that catches anything that falls out of their universe and/or multi-verse. The existence, for lack of a better term, contains anything and everything that has happened. You know of Turtle Prime, but that is not the only Prime world. The Prime worlds are very much like the sugar I just added to the crust mix. There's less then the graham crackers but it's there."
"Ya done with the cooking lesson yet?" Raph snapped. She twitched, her head jerking around as she half turned to glare at him.
"I was trying not to get too technical and go over your head," she snipped back at him, pointing at him with crumb crusted spoon. He had to give her points. It wasn't very often a normal human stood up to him.
"Alright, alright, the sugar is like Prime worlds, got it," Raph was starting to get a little impatient with all this. She nodded at him, pulling up her old faded jeans before bending down to pull out a glass pie dish from the shelves below the counter.
"From there the graham cracker crumbs are like the decisions that lead to the many different worlds branching off the Prime worlds. In all reality, the Worlds themselves do not look like a grid pattern. They spiral around their Prime World, the further out you get the... oh how should I say this," she paused, shifting her weight a few times on her feet as she started spooning the pie crust into the dish.
"The Prime World has the strongest of whatever makes that World special. For yours, it's literally your whole family. The very closest worlds have very little deviations from the Prime so it's hard to tell them apart.
"Your world is somewhere between the 280th and 310th in the lineup. The Turtles you met are actually much further out, hence the slightly more silly attitudes and constantly talking to no one. Nearer to the end of the spiral are the worlds where you don't really physically exist."
"We what!" Raph exploded, his voice echoing in the kitchen as he fingered his sai. His temper flared further when she glanced at him a little meekly. She stopped smoothing out the pie crust and turned to him fully. At the very least she still looked at him but her arms crossed over her stomach when she did.
"You still exist but to these worlds, your very much like the cartoons and comic books your world has. Only, unlike the Silver Sentry and the Justice Force, these cartoons and comic books stem from the imagination of ordinary people. It's more like these people found a door or a window to look threw to your world and that caused them to write about it in theirs. Because they have the weakest link to the Prime world, they can actually have other links to other Prime worlds; so long as their considered just ideas from great imaginations."
"Let me get this straight; there are worlds where my bros and I don't exist?" Raph snarled, his eyes flashing. He loomed over her, his finger nearly jabbing her in the chest. At her nod, he looked away in disgust with this knowledge. His bro's not existing was not a very pleasant thought. And what about the Shredder and the foot? Where they just helping themselves in those worlds?
"The evil's you face every day? Alien invasions, the foot, the ninja tribunal; they don't exist in those outer worlds either. Those outer worlds are as close to normal as one can get. They still have crime; gangs, mob bosses, terrorists. But those are all normal people. Their crazy most of the time, but their normal. No advanced tech, no special powers of any kind. Just somewhat average, crazy people who know how to pull the strings they want," She read the look on his face with surprising ease. That was another thing she hated about her job, delivering this kind of news was never taken very well.
"So where we exist, they exist," Raph muttered, glancing at her.
"Yes, but they don't exist because you do. You and your family, along with all the friends you make, are the light to their darkness. And not just there either. In the worlds where your cartoons and comic books and movies, you touch people there too."
Raph stepped back a little, sinking into the chair by the dining room table. This was a lot for a turtle to take in. But then, he had wanted answers. He just hadn't thought it was quite that big.
"What about them Turtle Primes? Do we die if they die?" He asked, almost fearing the answer.
"No, not in the sense you're thinking of. If they're killed by someone in their World or they die of old age, then just they die. You continue on in your World. It's only if someone from another World, either a branch from that multiverse or another multiverse, kills them does it affect you. Which is what happened when the Shredder tried to kill the Prime Turtles," she answered, hoping to ease his thoughts a little.
"So then what now? How do we get home? Should we go home?" She smiled slightly, shaking her head slightly at him.
"Well, in answer to your third questions, yes you should. Cause in all reality, I can't really keep you here. Not forever anyway. How you get home is up to me. I have to pinpoint the world that your from and the time you fell out of it and into the Library. Til then, you may do whatever you wish, within reason. There are rooms that can simulate any kind of fight you can think of. Though, I would be very careful with that, you might end up in over your head. We have plenty of bike things we need fixed up to. It's not just people who end up here, you know." She pulled another bowl from the cupboard to add the mix and milk to. He tapped his fingers on the table, watching her closely for a moment.
"So, why does your kitchen look like this?" The woman could have any room in the world and she picked an apartment.
"Cause this was home, before I was chosen to to be the Librarian," She turned to flash him a slight grin, "But no worries. No one's missing me. When a Librarian is chosen, that person simply never existed in their world."
He gaped at her, a pit dropping into his stomach at that revelation. Just how she could be ok with that? It seemed like too steep a price to pay just to be here voluntarily. Shell, faced with being stuck here while not existing anywhere else or knowing that there were more worlds with their own Raphael, he'd rather keep the knowledge.
"How do you live with knowing all this?" He raised a hand to rub the top of his head, sighing. It felt like someone had run over him with a semi.
"By knowing that I'm doing some good. I help lost people find their way home again," she said, spooning the mix into the pie crust before putting it in the fridge.
"Mikey's gunna want some of that," Raph said, watching her smile over the top of the door at him. That was enough for the time being. He wasn't sure if his mental well being could take anymore.
"I know. Come on, I think your brothers are about ready to hear me out now." He snorted before nodding slightly. If he had listened to the whole thing then they should as well. As she opened what should have been the front door, that instead led into one of their old lairs, Raph came to one conclusion. He may not be the only Raphael Hamato in the universe but he would be the only one that would get to remember this strange, confusing and slightly terrifying experience.