"Okay, okay, thanks to a friend of mine, without whose influence I wouldn't know any of this stuff at all, I think I know what's going on here."
Jack turned to gesture at them all, the whole group, with a wide sweep of his hand.
This would be something of a revelation for some of them, but they needed to be told eventually.
"All of you, all of the people here are considered fictional in this world. Manny was a little worried that means you've been made entirely new, like...like you actually are fictional and were made by the kids, but we've met new myths and they're...simple. They're not as solid as you guys in identity, in knowing who they are. We've been going about this like you got pulled through because that's the most likely thing."
He went on, "But the possible worlds that can exist out there - that's gotta be infinite right? In your worlds, you're real, but having so many worlds out there means worlds where other people had ideas for stories that were identical to your lives. That's just statistics - everything has to exist somewhere."
He held his hand to his chest. "Before I was even believed in, before anyone thought I was real, someone in this world came up with the idea for me as a fictional character - one that was, admittedly, not much like me and prone to wearing really stupid shoes and glitter - and to this day, I still don't know how. But they did it. Coincidence, since no one could see or hear me yet."
He gestured with his hand for emphasis.
"The thing with stories is that when people come up with an idea for a story, they come up with variations on how that story might go."
He pointed to Tony and looked over at Nico and Molly.
"There are multiple takes on this guy's story in this world. The one that's really popular right now - i.e. the one the kids would've most likely believed in hard enough to pull here from the world where it's real - is from movies based on comic books. There's a very different version of the character in the comic books themselves. I don't think this is the same version of the one that hurt you - and if you're not comfortable with talking it out, there's a quick way we can prove it."
He pointed to Wonder Woman. "She has a lasso that makes people tell the truth."
no subject
Jack turned to gesture at them all, the whole group, with a wide sweep of his hand.
This would be something of a revelation for some of them, but they needed to be told eventually.
"All of you, all of the people here are considered fictional in this world. Manny was a little worried that means you've been made entirely new, like...like you actually are fictional and were made by the kids, but we've met new myths and they're...simple. They're not as solid as you guys in identity, in knowing who they are. We've been going about this like you got pulled through because that's the most likely thing."
He went on, "But the possible worlds that can exist out there - that's gotta be infinite right? In your worlds, you're real, but having so many worlds out there means worlds where other people had ideas for stories that were identical to your lives. That's just statistics - everything has to exist somewhere."
He held his hand to his chest. "Before I was even believed in, before anyone thought I was real, someone in this world came up with the idea for me as a fictional character - one that was, admittedly, not much like me and prone to wearing really stupid shoes and glitter - and to this day, I still don't know how. But they did it. Coincidence, since no one could see or hear me yet."
He gestured with his hand for emphasis.
"The thing with stories is that when people come up with an idea for a story, they come up with variations on how that story might go."
He pointed to Tony and looked over at Nico and Molly.
"There are multiple takes on this guy's story in this world. The one that's really popular right now - i.e. the one the kids would've most likely believed in hard enough to pull here from the world where it's real - is from movies based on comic books. There's a very different version of the character in the comic books themselves. I don't think this is the same version of the one that hurt you - and if you're not comfortable with talking it out, there's a quick way we can prove it."
He pointed to Wonder Woman. "She has a lasso that makes people tell the truth."