“What the Hell is this?” Lucifer asked.
“What do you mean? This is My universe,” I replied.
“This isn’t a universe, this is just a weird… mish mash of musings.”
“I mean, I wouldn’t exactly call it a finished product. Give it some time and it will begin to take a more recognizable shape,” I defended, surprised at Lucifer’s critical stance. How would he have done it any differently?
“Not a finished product? None of these stories makes any sense. Who are all these people? When is all this taking place? Where is this all taking place? You just have all these different people in disjointed places and times, with no apparent connection between any of them. Some of the people don’t even have names. I mean, “the Bartender”? “The Traveler”? “The Barfly” Who the Hell are these people? Some vague connections to Ben, whoever the Hell he is, but we have no idea what connections there are or if any of this is happening at the same time or at totally different times or what.” Lucifer ranted, getting himself heated without any help from me.
“Whoa, whoa, relax, Lu. Like I said, this is till a work in progress. A universe is no small thing to create. If Rome wasn’t built in a day, this universe will not be built in a year, maybe not even a decade.” I explained.
“Okay, but God, stories have structure, flow, a single voice that explains everything. We know when things are flashing back or flashing forward, we can see that events are building to a natural crescendo. We know who the main characters are, we know who the supporting characters are, we can see that path being taken by the story, if only for a few feet in front of us.”
“That would be a fair criticism if I were building a story,” I explained, “but I am not building a story. I am building a universe, and a universe is far more complex than a story. A universe is full of people, some of them are connected to each other in some way and some of them are not. Events happen, and sometimes those events lead to other events, sometimes they have nothing to do with other events. Sometimes places exist and people never go to them. Sometimes people exist and we never meet them. Sometimes trees actually do fall in the woods, and no one is there to hear it. This is what differentiates our stories from our universes. I am here to build the latter.”
“… huh…” said Lucifer pensively, “Sooo, no build-up of events, character backstory reveals, betrayals, or climactic events?” He sounded disappointed in this.
“I didn’t say that either. Betrayals, revelations, climactic events, these are all things that happen in universes. The difference is that in stories these events define the story. A universe is defined by everything in it, big or small, and all these things exist within the universe. A climactic event changes the direction of a story, but a universe has no direction but out, and climactic events have no affect on a universe’s direction whatsoever.”
“Hm,” Lucifer conceded, “alright, I can see that. But still, your events are too disjointed, I don’t know when anything happens in relation to your other events. A universe may not be defined by the same kinds of series of events like a story is, but a universe still has a series of events, there is a timeline along which a universe travels.”
“Hmm,” I thought about this, “you are partially correct. Technically speaking, a universe does not have a timeline, per se. It is not a video, you don’t have to fast forward or rewind to get to different events. Think of a universe almost as a four-dimensional painting. Someone like me can travel to any point in that four dimensional space without the slightest effort. I can tell you right now how the universe will end, how it began, and anything in between without any little effort. I can describe to you the life of every being within it, no matter where or when they are, and I need not travel within any of the four dimensions of this universe to accomplish this.
“But you still have a good point that I had not considered,” I continued, “Thus far I have been moving around and describing to you people and places in precisely that manner I just described to you. And while this might be a perfectly acceptable and accurate way of moving around the universe to me, it is not the way in which we perceive the universes in which we exist, and therefore might be confusing to the outside observer. Time is not just the fourth dimension, it is also a construct of our own perception, it is the way in which we describe the connection between the events we observe. Therefore, it might be useful to have timeline.”
“Yes! A timeline would help tremendously!” Lucifer explained.
“A timeline of events. Yes, I can see how that might help keep things in perspective for the casual observer,” I thought for a moment, “Yes. I will work on this. It may take some time, so to speak, but I will make it so.”