THE MOMENT
"What?" Arnold's mind was starting to get overwhelmed, and he wasn't sure he had heard correctly. It'd been a couple of hours of conversation already, and he had the sense that they weren't even halfway done. He sat alone at the back of a now-closed tattoo shop talking with the owner, Mundo. She was a large, friendly woman with deep green hair, and over the course of their conversation, Arnold learned she was essentially the spirit of the Earth itself. She'd promised to reveal the secrets of the multiverse to him, and she'd been doing just that. "What do you mean, 'fun is illegal? How? Says who?"
"UNRANKED fun is illegal," she stressed the important word. "All fun and games need to be routed through the AlterNet in ranked play. It was decided by the Celestial Courts, in this case, the Void Court," she replied with a nod. "I was getting to them later, but since it came up now, I can explain how they work."
"Please," Arnold nodded. He'd learned a lot so far. The existence of the Multiverse and those known as Unique Souls, of which he was one. He'd wandered in to get a tattoo, and Mundo immediately started telling him about himself. His favorite number was one, and he was a Unique Soul known as 'El Gallo'. Unique Souls were consolidated over countless life experiences on alternate Earths until they eventually unified into a single being. He was now the only version of him in the infinite multiverse, with no other doppelgangers, or Zeros, as she labeled them. She was also a Unique Soul, El Mundo.
"So, I've mentioned Sharp Development, and briefly touched on Ballisea, the Demon Queen. Sharp Development's owner, Dana Sharp, created the Courts to facilitate multiversal governance. So, what's a 'Court', right?" Mundo asked with a smile.
"A 'Court' is a group of Celestial category Unique Souls that have pooled their power. Each of them is as powerful as all of them. The Void Court was created by Ballisea and includes her as 'El Sol', leading the rest: a Luna, Muerte, Estrella, and Mundo souls. A Court is traditionally five Celestials with occasionally a 'Court Champion' in a sixth seat, usually a Calavera," she said. Arnold was trying to keep all the names he'd heard straight, but it wasn't easy. There were 69 Unique Souls, and he'd already taken in a lot of information. Even before the talk, Mundo assured him that he'd probably need another round or two to take in all the information.
El Sol was known for limitless power, La Luna could mimic other Unique Abilities, La Muerte could control time, La Estrella could loose beams of stellar plasma, and El Mundo was regularly the spirit of whichever Earth they lived on. Those were all kinds of vague power scales he could dismiss as being 'too big to parse', but La Calavera was easy. They were strength personified, and even the weakest of them could destroy an entire Earth with a single blow. That was appropriately terrifying in the context of them being the weakest member of a Court.
Mundo seemed to notice he was processing it, and let the quietness linger for a moment before continuing.
"Any Sol or Celestial soul can create a Court under them, so it's important to highlight what the upper tiers of the six Celestial Courts look like. Ballisea, as mentioned, is an entire infinite, sapient universe, and El Sol, a soul with limitless potential. And, she's ancient enough to have looped the multiverse a few times by now, trillions upon trillions of years, most likely," she said.
"The Chrome Court is led by the Sun Dragon God, Chroma. She's almost as ancient as Ballisea, and dragons are known to get more powerful with age, also. Her entire court are dragons as well. The Sharp Court is humanity elevating itself as a necessity. Dana Sharp was a normal Zero who turned herself into a Sol, and she created the Celestial Courts to try and ensure some sense of fairness across the multiverse, so that the powerful deities wouldn't just run rampant. She laid down the rules that everyone started following," Mundo said. She took a drink of water to let Arnold's mind catch up again.
"The other three are the Regal Court, Solarion Court, and the A.I. Court. They'll be detailed a bit later in the talk, so I won't say much about them here. But, to bring a sense of order to the multiverse, Dana started running games with the Courts. They'd bet on the outcome of a game, most often AlterNet Roller derby, and the winner would take control of the next era, with a chance to instate their own rules. So, that's kind of where we are now," Mundo said.
"Ballisea and the Void Court are in charge right now, and it's her rules that prohibit fun."
"But..," Arnold wanted to point out that he'd had fun growing up. Except, it occurred to him that he'd never actually had a birthday party. He'd never even been to one, not even a backyard get-together. How did he never notice that? Did the courts have that much power over reality that no one on his entire Earth ever held a even a dinner gathering? He knew what ‘fun’ was intellectually, but he couldn’t say he’d ever felt a desire for it. "...oh wow...," the realization hit hard.
"So... what happens if I throw a party..?" he asked. Now that he was aware they'd been missing, he wondered what he could do about that. Mundo smiled and shook her head.
"I wouldn't invite anyone you care about."