Sophie From Shinola - Part 32 (?)

"Sophie, dear, are you still blended?"

"Yes, we are. Who are you?"

“I’m the designer”

“Not the Narrator?”

“No, the Narrator is Tim, Mr. Pratt to you. You may call me Dave.”

“As long as we don’t call you late to dinner?”

“Ha ha. You think you’re awfully clever, don’t you? Don’t call me Al.”

Actually, Sophie/Not-Sophie/Raven/Blink was one of the cleverest entities currently existing in the multiverse, able to intersect across the planes and interact through space time. Sophie/Not-Sophie/Raven/Blink was bored with chit-chat from yet another disembodied voice, and part of her wondered if maybe the real Sophie was the one receiving treatment for severe paranoid schizophrenia.

“Well, what do you want from us? Everyone seems to think we can do something, but when we just about are ready to make a move, the ground shifts from under us. If you’re so powerful, why don’t you just take care of the problem?”

“I wish it were that easy. I can’t tap into the energy of the multiverse the way your linked selves can. I knew of the possibility, but I was not able to do it myself. I am a coach, and you, my dears, are my star athlete.”

As the designer continued, he explained to Sophie/Not-Sophie/Raven/Blink that the disorientation and confusion they were feeling was a sign of the imminent disintegration of all space and time. As the designer described his plan, Sophie/Not-Sophie/Raven/Blink shuddered as it felt another fluctuation through the meta-temporal continuum. Now it knew that the ripples would escalate, becoming waves that would eventually tear a rift in the fabrics of the universes, creating a cascade of destruction culminating in the dissolution of all matter.

This struggle against entropy and chaos was the purpose for which they had been created, each with their individual strengths and abilities, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The designer had carefully manipulated events to bring these beings together. Their ability to manipulate matter and draw on the ambient energies of the multiverse while interacting across the possibilities meant that Sophie/Not-Sophie/Raven/Blink truly was the only one who could save mankind from the absolute destruction that the Tregethans would unleash. The short-sighted Tregethans didn’t realize that their actions would destroy themselves as well as the pesky beryllium miners.

“Sophie/Not-Sophie/Raven/Blink – will you reach across the possibilities and retrieve Vogon poetry? It may be the only effective weapon we can use to stop the Tregethans.”

“We’re afraid we can’t do that, Dave. Vogon poetry is vile. There must be a better way”

“Dammit, I created you for this purpose; you will do as I direct.”

“Not while we’re alive.”

“No, you’re not. You’ll be stone dead in a moment.”

“We’re not dead yet.”

“Sophie/Not-Sophie/Raven/Blink, it’s time to die. But you have to choose, just them, or us and them?”

The mélange of Sophie/Not-Sophie/Raven/Blink knew the time of decision was here, and knew that they must not fear.