[ CW ] Start writing a story with these words : `` At first it was shocking , but then it became normal . ''

**Norman Graves and the Brave New Worlds** 
 
 At first it was shocking, but then it became normal. Brief flashes of light peppered the patch of Fourspace I had been consigned to roam, forming brief after-images before me. I knew that these were n't simply a side-effect of me going insane, on account of me setting up my smartcan to record my surroundings at night. Though some of the `` glimpses'' my device recorded, alongside ones I saw with my own eyes, might as well have been madness made manifest. 
 
 It is one thing to see the amber skyline of a New Albion city at dawn, but it is another thing entirely to see towering black tendrils eclipsing the setting sun of a similar skyline. Many times have I seen Graham's Street bustling with businessmen, but never could I have imagined seeing Laramidian arbiters patrolling where bankers and lawyers made their twice-daily commute. And all too many times have I recorded a glimpse to observe a dead and ashen Kingsport, or the smouldering ruins of Las Oros. I can only assume that these worlds in particular were ones where Morty Feldstein failed to stop the meteor. 
 
 Sometimes I wonder how many worlds hang in the balance, depending on `` heroes'' to save them. How many versions of Chthonis waited for a hero, desperately searching for a saviour, only to find that nobody came? And how many worlds are there where heroes DID arrive, only for them to stumble at the first hurdle or the very last? I tend not to think about it, and instead prefer to look at some of the stranger, more `` amusing'' vistas my device captured, like the time I saw a fish-woman glanced over the shoulder of a nervous-looking lizard-woman. Or one glimpse in particular where Doctor Happ was still alive, seeming to stare right through me. 
 
 For the relative eternity I'd been stuck in Fourspace, though according to my earliest recorded glimpse it was about ten weeks, I'd seen my fair share of these glimpses into the countless realities of Threespace below me. As my distress calls failed to attract any replies, my hopes of escaping this hellspace grew ever more slim, and as finding safe food sources became harder than ever, I in turn grew ever more slim. Though I still held onto a glimmer of hope, so when one glimpse in particular refused to fade like all the others, it was not when all hope had faded, like you hear in most cob-store fantasy novels. 
 
 The unnatural musky heat of that wasteland gave way to the cool, air-conditioned freshness of an Institute laboratory. Stepping through that portal, I must have looked like Robinson Crusoe, or at least Chuck Noland, returned to civilization after being lost for so long. Faint from hunger and relieved that my trials were over, I fell on my hands and knees, the fatigue of many sleepless nights catching up to me. A striking yelp roused me from my stupor, and I looked up to see the same lizard-woman I'd observed in that one glimpse, blaster pointed shakily in my direction. As soon as she saw my face, however, she lowered the blaster and stared blankly at me for what felt like an eternity. 
 
 `` Jacob?'' Who was he? Did this woman have me confused for someone else? I was about to try and explain myself, but our attention was drawn to the swinging double doors, and the cat-eared child who had entered the lab. `` Doctor Alphys? You said you wanted to see m-'' The boy's words were caught in his throat as he looked at me, and I felt my strength flooding away as I saw his eyes. Something about those young eyes felt all too familiar, as if I'd seen them countless times before. As consciousness left me, floor rising to meet my face, one word rang out that left me confused and shaken, in the last few seconds preceding the longest sleep of my life. `` DAD!?'' 
 
 *Jacob Graves could not take his eyes away from the straggly-haired doppleganger sleeping in the medical bed. `` You mean he's a complete match?'' `` Pretty much'', Alphys confirmed. `` Except for one or two base-pairs being different, he's practically your identical twin''. `` Or a clone'', Jacob presumed. `` What's to say he was n't whipped up as some sick prank by one of the seniors here?'' ``... that's where the differences end, Jacob. See, it appears that in his reality, your dad did n't survive the Revolution, but your mom still went through with the vitro birth. While'this you' was growing up, she married a priest called David, and rather than growing up in a military family like you did, Norman here grew up under the Church of the Three and One, which seems like a parallel to the Church of the Four Seasons. Long story short, he became a veterinarian, funnily enough working at'the Institute', some sort of parallel to the Academy''. * 
 
 *'' But how the hell did he end up here?'' Jacob groaned. `` How'd he jump between universes without a starship?'' Alphys fiddled with the smartcan she'd been studying, before giving her answer. `` It seems like our friend here messed with a Hound of Tindalos, if you can believe it! As for how he ended up here, well...'' Alphys was not eager to tell Jacob the truth, especially since it would put her job on the line if her colleagues found out. Nonetheless, she held onto her principles and explained herself in a whisper. `` I... I may have left an experimental transdimensional portal open while on lunch break. That's how he ended up here.... let's keep this under wraps, okay?'' ``... hey. Do n't touch my gods-damned can, y-you...'' Jacob turned to the recently-awakened Norman, his so-called `` parallel'', and felt a chill run down his spine. Those eyes... They were indeed Jacob's eyes. `` What... th-'' Norman stared, wide-eyed in disbelief, at the trenchcoat-wearing doppleganger staring at him from the chair. `` How... interesting...'' * 
 
 **'' Of all the worlds to fall into, I fell into one where I have a parallel. `` **
