Worlds Apart (or not!) | ONC 2021

Prologue: Creation

The human world leaders stared dumbfounded at the images on the screen. The elven and dwarven leaders were even more confused.

"This. . . what is this?" a short, bulky man wielding a bronze battleaxe grunted.

"I concur. Humans, tell us what we are looking at," said a 5-foot tall, skinny, beautiful man.

The human world leaders looked at each other uneasily. Of course, they knew exactly what they were looking at; their kind used it everyday. But the problem was explaining the concept to the other leaders, the fantasy creatures.

Up on the big screen were two images, alike in format, yet different in the details.

The image on the left was half picture, half text. The top half of the image was occupied by a photo of a human female. Underneath the photo was what appeared to be the name of the female in the photo, and her supposed age. And below that was a simple introduction to who she was, what she liked, and what she didn't like.

On the other side, was the same thing, except this time it was a photo of a male elf. Obviously, the name, age, and introduction were different.

In Earthly human terms, a dating profile.

"It's. . . a dating profile," one of the human leaders said.

"A what?" an elf leader asked. "Are we speaking the same language? What's a 'dating profile'?"

"Yes, we are speaking the same language--and what a miracle that was--but give us a minute and we'll explain it to you," a human leader said.

The atmosphere grew tenser. On the human side, bodyguards armed with guns moved their fingers onto the safety, ready to disengage it and fire at the first sign of trouble. On the elf-dwarf side, figures clad in armor brandished their bows, swords, and other cold weapons, which began to glow with magic.

Suddenly, someone from the human side stepped forward. "Ok, here's what a dating profile is. Us Earth humans, we use things called 'dating apps' to find people we share similarities with, in hopes of getting romantically involved with them. 'Dating profiles' are our identity on these apps. Others look at our profiles and decide whether or not they want to try and get into a romantic relationship with us, ideally that is. That's that quickest way to explain it."

"You use your technology to decide who you spend the rest of your life with?" an elf leader scoffed.

"As crazy as it may sound, yes," the human leader continued. "With dating apps, we are exposed to more potential partners in a shorter amount of time. We can meet more people faster than the traditional style of courtship. With dating apps, we don't need to wander around our cities, looking for a pretty girl or guy to talk to, we just look on the app, decide who we want to meet, set up a time to meet, and then talk it out, again ideally."

At this the elf-dwarf side fell into deep thought.

What the humans said was true. Ideally, dating apps would cut the amount of time it took for people to get into a relationship.

"Wait, why are we talking about a dating app again?" asked a female elf.

"Ah, forgive me," a human leader said. "It has only been a month or two since our worlds connected, but this dating app just launched yesterday. And the special thing about this app is, it doesn't only work on Earth."

"It can work in our worlds?"

"Yes! The app even works on your technology, try it!"

The elves and dwarves took out their respective technologies and were surprised to find that what the humans were saying was true.

"Do you know who made this?" a dwarf asked.

"No."

"Then what do you plan on doing with it?"

"Let's keep it. In fact, we could use this to help our worlds grow closer in a more peaceful way," a human leader suggested.

"Yes, no more fighting. Instead, we let our own species mingle with one another and decide if they want to stay in contact," another human leader said.

The elf-dwarf group once again fell into thought.

Then smiles gradually creeped onto their faces.

And then some of them started laughing.

"Hahaha! Yes! Let's go with this!" a dwarf leader said. "Romance! The strongest bond! The tightest bond! Inter-species mingling! Interspecies breeding! Hybrids! It's the best way!"

His jovial tone eased the tension in the room, but his bluntness disturbed a few people, especially with the way he put things.

"Ha. . . ha. So, what do you say?" asked a human leader, holding his hand out.

The dwarf who laughed happily grabbed the leader's hand. "Very well human! Let us work together to sleep with as many women across worlds as we can! Ahahahaha!"

Suddenly, hand chopped his neck and the dwarf fell limp to the ground.

Everyone's eyes turned to the elf who knocked the dwarf out.

The elf also shook the human leader's hand. "The elves will stand with this. . . 'dating app.' We wish you the best. In the meantime, I will go introduce this to my people. Thank you."

After that, all the elves and dwarves left to go introduce the dating app to their worlds.

"That. . . turned out better than I expected," said a human leader.

"Yeah, let's keep it that way. Spread the word. The app is not dangerous and works just as intended. The creatures of fantasy seem to be peaceful, so far. They will be allowed to roam Earth. We'll work on the finer details later," someone said.

Some secretaries ran out of the room, probably going to get press releases ready and to spread the word.

"Okay everyone, we found life outside our own planet. Maybe not where we expected but life nonetheless. Let's keep the peace, ok?"

"OK!" Everyone agreed.