Chapter 6 Alt Title: Boring Boring Boring, Where's The Action?

"Y'know... Since I interact with so many beings that don't quite know the meanings of the terms I use... I though I'd explain a few terms for you all."

Umbra leans back in a fancy armchair inside a fancy reading room, the one that all rich people seem to have in their mansions. Y'know, the one with a giant library, a fireplace, and armchair or two, and a massive portrait of the owner hanging above the mantle.

"So... let's get started I guess..."

He consults the book in his lap, which, for you detail lovers, was a beautiful, red, hardcover book bound in leather and... just think of one of those giant tomes from most fantasy series, except red. The title is in curving, golden script. It reads:

"Alright, first term: The Void. Ahem. What is the Void? The Void is, quite simply, the big ball o' paradox that contains everything that is, was, will be, isn't, wasn't, and won't be. Confused? It's just everything in and out of existence. It looks like a city of floating skyscrapers expanding off into infinity. It contains Universes of all kinds of dimensions, ranging from 0D to... everything really. I myself mostly work with the 3D Universes. Lets see... each skyscraper is called a Complex. Each Complex houses a different Multiverse, and keeps it separate from the others. Each Multiverse generally looks different from the others, though my normal assignment is the 'Bubble' Branch... right... each different Multiverse is called a Branch. Within each Branch is an infinite expanse of Universes, each one different from the rest in an increasingly variable amount of ways. Each Universe contains a few different parts: The Base, The Splinters, and The Derivatives. For example: Your Universe when it began was the Base. Your current timeline is a Splinter, since it splintered off the base timeline. A Derivative would be the MARVEL Universe, which started a new Base, new Splinters, and new Derivatives. Basically, if the Splinter becomes too unique, it becomes a Derivative and turns into a new Base."

Umbra looks up, putting a pipe to his mouth and reclining further, a footrest popping out of his armchair with a pull of a lever.

"Right. Next, we have the various coding languages that go into the Void and the Multiverses. Ahem. Well, the first one ever was Shadowburn A, which was basically ones, zeros, and theta signs, trinary, if you will. It ran off hexadecimal format, and evolved over time to Shadowburn C, which was refined enough to create the first constructs in the Void: Command HQ, and Yggdrasil. The Second one ever to come about was Shadow A++, basically the default form for the Void now, a huge step up from the clunky trinary, it smoothed into a less glitchy mess with actual command lines. Then came the personalized formats, all compatible with Shadow A++, but normally better, like mine, UMBRA OS-, which is much more useful, less buggy, and contains a lot more detail to it. And then I made Blackbox OSX, which made it more user friendly and streamlined. Hmm... well... that seems to be everything for technical background... lets go over SysAdmin stuff now."

Umbra now has a cup of tea, a saucer occupying his other hand.

"First: All SysAdmins are shadows, usually deriving a name from the words ghost, dark, shadow, smoke, and just about a million other words with the connotation of dark. No two Admins look completely alike, however. I myself am distinct for my white, glowing features, a trait which no other Admin has. Some go for green, others gray, one Admin normally goes around as a big cloud of smoke!"

Umbra takes a pause to chuckle a little.

"Well, as to abilities, first thing to know is that all Admins have unique weaknesses and their own unique ability. Tenebrous, my idiot subordinate, has the unique weakness to sunfire. His ability is the ability to turn anything into a high powered, unstable, extremely dangerous mess of coding. Which is why he is so lowly ranked. He's also really, fantastically stupid. Me, I'm weak against intensely magical light in my normal form, and have the unique ability of CopyPaste with my shadows, meaning I can make anything out of shadows, and it'd work as if it was the real thing, unless it radiated powerful, magical light. Hm. Well, SysAdmins also can shift from corporeal to incorporeal, use shadows as transportation, assimilate shadows into our bodies, steal shadows, take over shadows to use as bodies if ours are destroyed, break the fourth wall, use shadow anything, resurrect things, reverse time... basically, everything an omnipotent god could do... even make a sandwich big enough so that we couldn't eat it all. It was a long night full of vomiting an rejoicing, that's all I'm gonna say."

He takes a moment to adjust the glasses now appearing on his face.

"All SysAdmins share the common trait of being able to directly influence the Void, the Multiverses, the Universes, and everything in between. This is entirely due to our instinctual manipulation of the underlying coding of the Void. That seems to be everything for now... I'll just let you chew on this info for a while, don't expect me to do this again, exposition is boring."

Umbra leans back again, sipping his tea and removing his reading glasses, picking up another book and waving the camera off.

"Well? Go on, shoo! I have things I need to do!"

Well then, time to go.

End Chapter 6

Author's Notes:

Eh... felt like doing exposition