From attempting to pass off media taken from other worlds' internets as AI-generated content to cataloging millions of alternate Earths with each passing day, facing up against immense interdimensional empires, or even forging one yourself - prepare yourself for the madness that is the multiverse.
Despite the sun rising high outside, the room you reside in remains dim, musty and shrouded. In the corner, a tiny blob of gray liquid floats suspended in a stabilization chamber, lying right next to an empty energy drink can and a pair of socks you haven't gotten around to cleaning. Clacking away at the keyboard, you finish up some last minute adjustments on the one project you've been slaving away at for almost half a decade. Once you enter the command to turn your little program on, nothing will ever be the same. Anywhere.
In the events that transpire from this day, you, one Theodore "Ted" Sung, will go on to become one of this most important people on the planet, whether it be for good or for ill. Your name will be etched within the annals of scientific history, put shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Newton, Einstein and Hawking. Hell, you might be even better than they could have ever hoped to be; after all, none of them were able to put their ideas into full practice.
Or you could bungle everything and end up on the receiving end of an FBI agent's sniper rifle. Really, it could go either way.
After your creepy uncle died from the 'rona just a little over four years ago, he left you $70,000 in his will. He also left you a most unusual heirloom: 1 gram of a previously unknown non-baryonic substance, with no indication as to its origin. In an instant, you knew to make this possession your most treasured secret from the rest of the world.
Ever since then, you've sequestered yourself in your downtown LA apartment, working on the one thing that could change the future of everything: a quantum physics theory that not only suggests that an infinite multiverse with infinite variability exists, but can be fully accessed through converting microscopic amounts of the "mystery goo". You don't really have a formal name for it, and quite frankly you don't think it needs one. At least, not right now.
The strange thing is the mystery goo can only be primed using existing fictional works. In the beginning, only worlds with an extremely close resemblance to the "real world" will be readily accessible, limiting you to alternate history timelines you happen to find on alternatehistory.com, Sufficient Velocity or elsewhere on the internet.
You've been able to successfully prime three of these works, along with an experimental fourth option that will consume just a few dozen extra nanograms of mystery goo in order to access. Besides this one exception, the current date in the other internet's world will also be July 4, 2024.
[] [Starting World / TL-2] Player Two Start
The main focus of this timeline is on video games, although butterflies in many other areas have also occurred. Nintendo and Sony's 1991 partnership in making a CD addon for the SNES has resulted in a drastic alteration of the console gaming landscape in comparison to TL-0, along with a generally positive change in the geopolitical arena. Hell, when the fictional timeline ended US president JFK Jr. was leading an international coalition against Pakistan... you aren't sure anyone who knew about the sour shit the Pakistani government was up to both OTL and ITTL would be against that.
-Media Examples: Super Mario World 2 (1993), Fox's Super Bowl XXXI broadcast (1998), Johnny the Homicidal Maniac on Adult Swim (2001), Al Gore's second inaugural address (2005)
[] [Starting World / TL-2] OTL -20 years
If you end up going with this option, then it might be a better idea to do something along the lines of "tell people about what might happen in the next two decades and see what happens" instead of anything else. But who knows, you might be able to stumble across some website lost to TL-0 or something like that.
-Media Examples: Recovery of lost websites, Flash animations, etc.
[] [Starting World / TL-2] 2020: Shots Fired
A world of conflict and chaos. Just reading the words written on the fictional version of the timeline send chills down your spine. Despite a somewhat higher quality of entertainment balancing off TTL's nasty political landscape somewhat, this is still a very dangerous timeline full of terrorism and radical politics. Perhaps this should be put aside for when you have more resources at your disposal?
-Media Examples: Footage from the Battle of Richmond (2020), Media coverage of the events following President Andrew Cuomo's suicide attempt (2021), Season 3 of the Owl House (2022), Among Us 2 (2024)
[] [Starting World] The World Wars
By far the most divergent of the four timelines, and also the most mysterious. Diverging from TL-0 in 1911, with an escalated Agadir crisis resulting in an alt-WWI, this timeline has experienced no less than five world wars by the year 2024, with a sixth looming just on the horizon. Of note is World War V, a nuclear conflict which didn't throw the planet back into the Stone Age like most expected but "merely" killed two billion people as a result of the warheads and the subsequent nuclear winter.
A version of the internet definitely exists ITTL, but chances are that differing connection standards will make communications quite difficult.
-Media Examples: ???
- - -
For the time being, there are two components to your communications apparatus - well, three if you found the mystery goo suspension device. There's the Parachronic Internet Communicator (or PIC for short), which is the main device linking your computer with the rest of the multiverse. The PIC Interface Program (abbreviated PIP) is the software to the PIC's hardware, allowing your Lunix computer to interpret the data that the PIC sends in a human readable manner. Data transfer rates will average at about 5 megabytes per minute, going both ways.
Your plans, at least during this embryonic point in your career, is simple: connect to the world you determined above with your PIC, download some media from said world onto your computer, and try to pass it off as "AI generated" while profiting off of it the best you can. After all, the money your inherited from your crazy uncle wasn't enough to cover all the costs, and there's still standard living expenses that you need to consider.
But for now, your immediate focus should be on creating a fresh series of social media accounts in OTL, or TL-0 as you like to call it.
I like the concept, I also have no idea how to properly plan this operation so I'll just choose randomly
[X] [Starting World / TL-2] 2020: Shots Fired
[X] [Social Media] YouTube
[X] [Social Media] Reddit
[X] [Social Media] The Website Formerly Known as Twitter
(Note to self, the one thing that makes TL-0 interesting is that one of their social media sites has a similar name to The Man Formerly Known As Prince)
Edit: OWL HOUSE FOR THE WIN
OTL is where we are living right? As it is youtube you can monetize videos that you upload. Not sure what monetization looks on the other choices except for twitch and twitch does not seem to be a good platform currently unless we can get games that dont hit any copyrights, which making a Twitch account even if we dont stream anything initially might be a good idea, that way you can pick the same name as the youtube account.
(Note to self, the one thing that makes TL-0 interesting is that one of their social media sites has a similar name to The Man Formerly Known As Prince)
Also, there's currently a three-way tie between 2020: Shots Fired, The World Wars, and Player Two Start. If nobody votes between now and vote closure I'll cast the tie breaker myself.
Adhoc vote count started by Addemup on Jul 9, 2024 at 3:25 PM, finished with 10 posts and 6 votes.
A big pro of World Wars is I expect things to be quite a bit different from OTL and that is going to lead to some very different IPs rising which means we should have more selection of things that dont infringe on current IPs
I wanted to wait and see if anyone would break the tie on their own, but then I got distracted and started working on other projects. The next update will be posted tomorrow at the latest.
It was a difficult decision, although once you had decided you were locked in for good. The timeline of Player Two Start, which you have read through extensively over the past several months, will be your first target for your multiversal media showcase operation. Now all you have to do is put the plan into action.
You clack away at the keyboard, going through the steps to prime the mystery goo with the multiple PDF compilations generously provided by the timeline's author themself. Command after command returns a success, giving you a sense of intensity from within your chest. But then you hear a hissing sound from your room's other corner, and it all comes crashing down.
For a split second, you and your entire apartment are plunged into complete darkness. The sudden drop in luminosity isn't enough to take you too far out of your element, but the continued hissing - no, not just continuing, it's getting louder - sends your mind spiraling down a torrent of anxiety.
It isn't long at all before the power comes back on. The PIC, on the other hand, is a different story.
You breathe an enormous groan generated from deep within your lungs. This is going to take a while.
Now that the communicator is up and running once again, it's finally time for you to start grabbing media from TL-2. Based on what you've read, the timeline as it existed on paper were in a more positive than OTL, with plenty of convergences such as the 1996 US presidential election and the release of the Microsoft Xbox giving it a somewhat familiar feel. These events are more than balanced out by a greater number of divergences, such as the survival of Kurt Cobain into the 21st century and the airing of Phineas and Ferb on Nickelodeon a decade early.
[] [First Media] Super Mario World 2 (1993 video game)
One of the hallmark releases for the Super Nintendo CD, Super Mario World 2 was the highly-praised sequel to the just-as-successful Super Mario World, released for the base SNES two years earlier. Featuring improved graphics, sounds and the debut of Charles Martinet as the voice actor for Mario, you can't imagine there being a better starting point for your personal collection of TL-2 video games.
Of course, given the impossibility of acquiring the physical hardware, you'll have to download an SNES-CD emulator in order to run the game. This might come with some difficulties, due to the divergent architecture for Windows operating systems ITTL.
[] [First Media] Superman: Last Son of Krypton (1996 film)
Produced by Joel Silver and directed by Sam Raimi, Superman: Last Son of Krypton was a superhero film starring Bruce Campbell, Kevin Spacey, Lawrence Fishburne and Dana Delaney. The movie's first two acts centers around the iconic Superman (Campbell) going up against the nefarious Lex Luthor (Spacey), who are then forced to work together in order to prevent Brainiac (Fishburne) from destroying the planet. All the while the proactive Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Delaney) is repeatedly put in peril by both Luthor and Brainiac.
According to the source timeline, there were a lot of internet memes based on Spacey's performance in the early 2000s. Perhaps you could pay a visit to PTKFGS?
[] [First Media] Series premiere of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (2001 cartoon)
Instead of creating the (somewhat) more kid-friendly sci-fi series Invader Zim which aired on Nickelodeon, TTL's Jhonen Vasquez opted to translate his cult classic indie comic Johnny the Homicidal Maniac into animated form with the blessing of the newly created Adult Swim. The pilot, which first aired on television on September 9, 2001, is a loose adaptation of the comic's first issue, including segments featuring side characters such as "Happy Noodle Boy" and "Wobbly-Headed Bob".
Initially rated TV-14, when the show was renewed for a second season Adult Swim increased it to a TV-MA and let Vasquez and his team have more creative freedom in their work... but you'll get to that later. Probably.
[] [First Media] Tomb Raider on Sega Saturn (1996 video game)
Yeah, sex sells, but you know what also sold pretty well? The Sega Saturn in TL-2. Although still moderately outshone by the SNES-CD and Ultra Nintendo, what was IOTL a complete flop of a system instead became a considerable rival to the Nintendo-Sony juggernaut due to a distinct lack of PlayStation. Among more family-friendly titles like Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and NHL '96 were a far greater number of mature games such as Resident Evil, Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and, of course, Tomb Raider.
From what you can gather the TL-2 version of Lara Croft's debut video game isn't all that different from the one from TL-0, . Pretending that you're playing the OTL version
[] [First Media] President Gore's 9/11 Oval Office address
An alternative, albeit somewhat more risky approach is to initially showcase real-world footage of historical events from TL-2. One instance that will likely get prospective viewers' attention is President Al Gore's Oval Office address following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. You know the alternate history community, and you also know that one of the most popular 21st century points of divergence is if Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election. If you're going to claim anything from TL-2 as AI-generated, then it would be this.
- - -
Given the sheer breadth of media now available to you from this one timeline (just imagine having to manage more!), it might be a good idea for you to home in on one particular type of media as opposed to running the gamut right from the start.
[] [Future Focus Area] Video games
Considering that they're the focus of the fictional source, it would only be natural that you focus on them in your initial endeavors as well. As previously mentioned, you will have to rely on emulators in order to play these games, in addition to the individual ISO files. What's more, you might be able to upload these emulators and other files for others to enjoy, albeit possibly behind some kind of paywall. Hey, you gotta pay off your debt somehow.
Video game consoles from TTL include: The Sega Saturn, the Ultra Nintendo, the Sega Katana, the Microsoft Xbox, the Nintendo Wave, and many, many others. Too many games to list.
Could also include video game commercials and promotional material.
[] [Future Focus Area] Cartoons
The other media staple of just about every 90s kid, cartoons don't begin to seriously diverge until about 1996. This was when Nickelodeon picked up Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh's Phineas and Ferb pilot long before the Disney Channel gave it the greenlight IOTL.
Possible cartoons to pick from include Buttkickin' Girls (TTL's equivalent to The Powerpuff Girls, airing on Fox Kids), Larry and Steve (IOTL a failed Cartoon Network pilot made by Seth McFarlane), and Spy School (an animesque action-adventure series co-created by Tom Warburton and Mo Willems). And that's just covering the turn of the millennium.
[] [Future Focus Area] Live-action television
Notable examples include the Bernie Mac era of Family Feud, a cop show called Line of Fire which stars Sinbad, and Star Trek: Nemesis (in no way related to the OTL film).
Also includes webseries of all stripes, such as JonTron 2.0 and The Angry Video Game Nerd.
[] [Future Focus Area] Films
Of particular note is the DC cinematic universe, which initially began as a series of separate films dating all the way back to Tim Burton's Batman (1989), culminating in the 2004 blockbuster Justice League. As far as you can tell, the major movies of the 1990s and 2000s remain the same for the most part.
[] [Future Focus Area] News media
Despite the mainstream news outlets remaining largely the same as they are IOTL - NBC, The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and so on - the news of which they cover could not be any more different. The events of the Gore, Huntsman and JFK Jr. administrations should be prime targets for showcasing, although
Also includes footage of historical events.
- - -
After entering the last few commands, an ASCII progress bar presents itself on the Arch Linux console. It should be no more than an hour before whatever you've decided to download has been transferred to your PC. In the meantime, you can go get dinner.
Now all you need to do is create a social media presence. You have your own personal accounts, of course, but for the purposes of your interdimensional endeavors you will make a separate account, with no obvious connections to what you had before. To start with, you will create accounts on YouTube, Twitch, Reddit, and X (formerly known as Twitter), which you will establish once the media downloader has completed its first job.
There's no doubt that you've had more than enough time to think up a clever username, one that doesn't tell people what your real modus operandi is but still somewhat indicative of what you do. What have you decided to call yourself?
[] Username (write-in)
- - -
A/N: I think I might start posting updates three days apart instead of two. Does that sound good to you guys? Regardless, the next part will be released on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
[X] Plan: look kids! We're cool!
-[X] [First Media] Series premiere of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (2001 cartoon)
-[X] [Future Focus Area] Video games
-[X] Username (MauiX)
Kids are usually going to be the ones that watch us, so focusing on things they'll think are fun and or cool will help us, hence Johnny, who will appeal to the teens who are going through their everything sucks phase while video games will net us the younger audience, which will eventually turn into the everything sucks crew!
And the username is a reference to how Maui stole a lot of stuff from the gods to give to the mortals.
We're stealing from the gods of industry of other universes to give to the humans of our world!
The X at the end is cause the letter X is very Cool.
That's a very reasonable concern. However, it's possible that Twitch donations/subscriptions might net the protag some money without triggering any cease-and-desists. My knowledge of copyright systems on Twitch are a bit spotty, however, so this might not be accurate.
That's a very reasonable concern. However, it's possible that Twitch donations/subscriptions might net the protag some money without triggering any cease-and-desists. My knowledge of copyright systems on Twitch are a bit spotty, however, so this might not be accurate.
Movies and tv shows would be straight out- if we are playing games that basically exist in current timeline that would not be an issue but also would not generate a lot of interest as 1st time streamer. Having some good game that does not exist in our TL and that is not an IP in our timeline would be big as a hey i got access to this game and was asked to show it off sort of thing
[X] Plan: look kids! We're cool! V2
-[X] [First Media] Series premiere of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (2001 cartoon)
-[X] [Future Focus Area] Video games
-[X] Username (Maui_SV)
![Approaching the Infinite [Multiversal Techploitation Planquest]](/data/threadmark-index-icons/l/77/77202.jpg?1721083337){kind=icon}
