Searching Far and Wide

[intricate_engineer]

Glen was creating a prototype for a new gate design. It was meant to be affordable and provide quick transport between individual homes. She tests several objects and a rat and everything seems to be working.

She steps through. Instead of finding herself in the room next door, she finds herself standing on a sidewalk in an empty city. The buildings are tall and perfect, colorless with doorways far too tall for any human. The roads have no straight lines and twist in on themselves. There is no life or sound.
Glen tries to stay calm. She begins to walk along the road, randomly opening doors and exploring buildings that are as silent as the rest of the world.

She opens a door that she hopes will lead onto a roof and is instead met with warmth, and soft noise, and color.

Comments

[the_very_best]

"And I didn't get a comprehensive science education before deciding to seek immortality. I consider being immortal a very important time-management skill."

[intricate_engineer]

"True. If you succeed, you'll have time to learn anything you want."

[the_very_best]

"Exactly!"

[intricate_engineer]

"I have met individual immortal people. It might be possible for you even if you can't easily spread it."

[the_very_best]

"That would be great, if distinctly a second choice."

[intricate_engineer]

"It seems to come from getting on the good, or bad, side of a god like being, so pursuing legendaries might be the perfect choice either way."

[the_very_best]

"Excellent!"

[intricate_engineer]

"Done?" Glen asks, pushing away her empty plate.

[the_very_best]

"Mm-hm."

[intricate_engineer]

Glen returns to assembling the portal. There are no major problems, though Glen does give herself a few small injuries.
"I'm not particularly looking forward to doing this again."

[the_very_best]

"But you need two for it to work, right?"

[intricate_engineer]

"Yea, unless I can connect to one back home."

[the_very_best]

"How likely that you can do that?"

[intricate_engineer]

"Not very."

[the_very_best]

"What governs whether you can?"

[intricate_engineer]

"If I can locate the other portals, which, until I figure out where we are now, isn't happening."

[the_very_best]

"Ah, gotcha. 'Where' in what sense?"

[intricate_engineer]

"Relative to current location. There is no absolute locations to measure from, which makes it more difficult."

[the_very_best]

"How do you measure relative location interdimensionally?"

[intricate_engineer]

"I can't do it manually. A computer calculates the vector and then counts the number of universes between the two locations in that direction."

[the_very_best]

"- how many dimensions are universes arranged in?"

[intricate_engineer]

"How many dimensions can two objects be arranged in? Up, up and slightly to the left, up and slightly more to the left... There is an infinite number of possibilities."

[the_very_best]

"I don't mean directions, I mean dimensions, like, you could imagine all the universes being in a row, or you could imagine them being in three dimensional space, or you could imagine them being in four dimensional space if your brain is more of a pretzel than mine is..."

[intricate_engineer]

"Ah. They don't exist in any physical space, so that question isn't any more meaningful than talking about directions. It's all metaphors in english. Alright, imagine you are seeing the normal three dimensions, but then you turn and see a fourth, and then you turn again and find yourself existing in five dimensions. The dimensions' existence is similar to that. There is always another dimension curled up in the place you didn't look. Time isn't especially meaningful. A lot of the directions lead to universes we can't understand. We typically ignore those."

[the_very_best]

"None of that made sense."