Storyverse

Chapter 10: That One Chapter Where One Character Takes a Long, Tedious Time...

Oliver and Beatrice sat down. Kai clapped his hands and a blackboard appeared to their side, like in a school classroom. Something was written on it in marker: "Topic 1: Narrative Layering" Kai manifested square glasses in his right hand, put them on, then began to speak:

–That's right. You already know very well that everything around you is fictional. Well, then let's pretend you're writers, okay?

–Eh... no, it's too hard, I can write a couple sentences at most, and that would be the end of my inspiration, – Oliver blankly stated.

–Well I'm sure you can do it if you want to be a writer! – Beatrice encouraged him.

–No, no, let's just imagine, – said Kai while rubbing his forehead as if to alleviate a headache stemming from dealing with troublesome children. – Let's imagine that you are writing a book. You see, when you simply imagine something, you immediately create a complete infinite in size universe, if not a multiverse, that is fictional to you. Yes, yes, you just imagine something, and it already exists in a fiction! It will be fiction for you, but to the imagined characters, that world will be quite real.

–You already lost me, – Oliver said while squinting and tilting his head to the side.

–Haha, we're just getting started. It's about to get much more complicated from here. So here it is. You create the whole universe every time you imagine anything, especially if you're imagining a complete story. And since it's a full-fledged universe... there's likely to be at least one character, even if he doesn't actually appear in the story and is just part of the background, who will also be a writer. And he, too, will create a universe by making up a story. Do you get it?

–Mm... can you give an example, Mr. Kai? – Beatrice asked.

–Hmm... well, take a look at this, – said Kai, and a plate appeared in his hand, on which was a layered cake; a layered cake with three layers, specifically. – Here... – Kai pointed to the topmost layer, – ...is where you are. Meanwhile, here... – he pointed to the second layer on top, – ...is the world you have imagined. Lastly, here... – finally, the owner of this pocket world pointed to the bottom layer, – ...is the world imagined by the writer in your imaginary world. In this example, you would be on the highest layer, world you imagined would be 1 layer lower, and the world imagined by the writer in your imaginary world it would be 1 more layer lower. Is that clear?

–Well... a little clearer, even though it is hard to imagine, – Oliver answered, sighing.

Oliver considered every single time he made up stories in his mind. "So these were all worlds, as real as mine?" According to Kai, he isn't much better than Gerda in that case...

–Now watch this trick! Tally-ho!! – New layers began to appear from the top of the cake, going upward so high that the top was no longer visible; in addition, layers also began to appear from the bottom of the cake, piercing the plate and the floor. – This is roughly what the Narrative layering look like. They have no beginning or end, both ways.

After that, the cake became three-layered again, and Kai, who had used it as an example for the everything that exists... began to eat it.

–So, uh, these "Narrative Layers"... surely they cap at some sort of "Infinity", right? You know, like... surely? – Oliver asked, raising his right eyebrow.

–Well, yes, but actually, no. Oh well, let's talk about math if you feel like it. Ahem. Even things like Gregor Cantor's "Absolute Infinity", "Cardinal numbers" and "Alephs Numbers", and even Inaccessible Cardinal... it's all imaginable. After all, we do call such concepts something, which means someone invented them. For example, Absolute Infinity was imagined by Cantor! Quite simple, right? As we all know... ah, no, it's only me who knows it out of all of us. Ahem. Well, here we go. As not we all, but I know, everything that can be imagined is already a fiction and is on the layers of Narrative. Well, if that number is imaginable, then the number of layers of Narrative is uncountably higher than that number. Uh-huh, even all that is considered "absolute" is infinitesimal compared to the ladder of layers of the Narrative.