by bflatmajor@gaia

THE MAGIC MAN

“Take my hand. Do not let go.The journey ahead will be long and hard. “. 

QUICKY NOTES.

• Is a young adult's novel
  
• Deals with lots of universe crossing.
  
• Stars a children's magician who is mistakenly taken for a great wizard fugitive.

AND THE TL;DR VERSION:

• In the context of my *~*~*METAS*~~*, there is not one universe but several hundreds of thousands, each of which are connected by invisible strings. These strings can be severed both scientifically and magically but it requires a great deal of strength and cunning. Eventually, the strings that hold together all my universes always regenerates given some time. The strings are sort of like an immortal creature, really!
  
  If you are particularly talented you can not only cut these strings, but cross them like a tight rope as well. If you should fall off, you fall forever and ever and ever and ever until you feel like you are floating. And then you eventually die. The least you can do is hope that you catch onto another string somewhere on the way down.
  
  There are several universes that are aware of these strings and believe it dangerous to cross these strings. *___* So, they constantly sever them to prevent the above. (And also meetings with *~**DANGEROUS~~**~ UNIVERSES.)
  
  
• Hadley lives in a rather humdrum and nameless city located in Midwest America during a relatively humdrum and peaceful time. He has no issues with this, being a pacifist and overall content with being absolutely “normal.”
  
  Currently, he works as a children’s magician with his kid/”orphan”/wat sidekick June.
• Suddenly! One day! REAL magicians from an ALTERNATE dimension cross into Hadley’s world in order to hunt down a fugitive wizard known as The Great Fiore. Coincidentally, The Great Fiore is Hadley’s stage name. 
  
  
  …how. unfortunate.
  
  

Hadley explains it better here:

• They stopped under a city night, a grey-pink and fuzzy one with much more floating, swirling dust and flash-lit planes than anything else. Hadley had told her once that if she pointed straight into the sky at any given moment at any given place (even in the city), the line from her finger into infinity would string thousands of thousands of bead-like stars, more than any person could count in their entire lifetime. “What is your point,” June had asked. “My point,” Hadley replied, ”is that there is starlight everywhere for forever, even if it isn’t dark or clear enough to see. And, suppose you can cross these strings… Don’t you wonder what other things you might meet along the way?”
  
  ’”..That’s a stupid thought.”
  
  “Is it?”
  
  June frowned when he brought this up again and having stopped, made clear her disapproval and that it was, indeed, still as stupid as the first time they had discussed this. If her remarks had a taste, someone like Hadley one would liken it to an orange rind, or dandelion greens. “Again with the strings? We haven’t any time for another one of your stories, Hadley, we’ve a number of important things to do— like, not getting killed, for one?”
  
  She felt a retiring weight placed upon her head, right between the apple printed scrunchies that held her wheat-coloured hair into two evenly sized tails. “So, you haven’t been thinking about where they lead then?”
  
  “Of course not!”
  
  “It’s important, though. These strings will be our escape… at least for now.” she shoved his hand off and made to give her most caustic leer. But, when she looked up, she didn’t find the usual smile, or chuckle. Rather, she found a rare expression— the very same as the sort as when she caught him off-guard and late at night puzzling over the electric and water bills, or attempting to decipher some needlessly complicated documents and other adult-things. He was looking into the city night. From his shoulder, Humanity fluttered his wings.
  
  “What?”
  
  “Imagine with me Junebug, the construct of the multiverse as a sort of big… big… spider-weaving.”
  
  “Riiight.”
  
  “It’s a silly metaphor, I admit. But this was the one he** had told me as a child, and I’ve yet to compose a more apt, or poetical description for this rather complicated picture. So, this is the one you are getting.
  
  Now, in a spiderweaving, there are strings upon strings of very fine, sometimes invisible silk threads that interconnect and capture bits of things… Like flies and beetles and leaves and dew drops. The things the web connects and reconnect and capture, these are their own separate universes, with their own separate scientific and magical laws. Mostly, they are unaware of these strings and each other. Those inside the universe of the ‘captured fly’ are more likely to be unaware that just two strings down is the universe of the ‘maple twig’ than not.”
  
  “Ignorance is the curse of God.”
  
  “Beautiful reference, Junebug. But. It’s nobody’s fault, I think. It’s just that everything is so big and complicated. Each universe, for one,” He raised his left hand “is so far from the other,” now his right, “there are far more of these strings and nothing, than there are stuff… bits.” Wiggled his fingers. “It’s like drifting in a some arctic ocean without a compass of any sort. Somewhere farther north, you are sure there are continents… But, by how much? Which is closer, the south of Africa? Australia? The Americas?” His hand settled down, his voice low again. “And, for another each universe itself is so big. A single planet can’t be expected to look beyond just its own sun, or find other worlds if its people still have their own problems to fix.
  
  …Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. Is that how it went?”
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  “Good, I hadn’t read it in some time. It’s a great allusion, June, especially for the situation at hand. Those wizards are fully aware of the other verses and of the strings themselves because “mostly” does not mean “all.” We are aware, as well.”
  
  He turned towards the girl, and bowed a little. “My dearest assistant, will you hand me my wand?”
  
  June took a moment to gather her thoughts before pulling the piece of plastic from their bags, which, for whatever reason, always felt incredibly dusty and warm. In this single moment, she was silent, and almost believed that it really was magic. It glowed a little too, and when it came into her guardian’s hand glowed even more brightly. And then, in its light, she saw strings that came from the city night and jutted right into the ground. Hadley plucked at one. There was a low hum. He plucked at another. There was an even lower hum. 
  
  “I think I like this one”
  
  “I liked the other,” she muttered.
  
  “Very well, Junebug. This one. This one.” He rested his wand on the one June had liked. “Take my hand. Do not let go.The journey ahead will be long and hard. “
  
  “Better than dead.”
  
  She took his hand. 
  
  (A girl, a man, and their pigeon disappeared from beneath a city night.)
  
  
  • ** He: In references to the Prior Great Fiore. LMAO OKAY SO I AM OVERHAULING A LOT OF HADLEY’S STORY.
    
    Anyways, The Prior Fiore was a fugitive wizard from another dimension. The reason for his escaping is still unclear to Hadley, though they did meet once before when Hadley was about nine. The Prior Fiore imparted on the young boy a bit of his own magic (which is why Hadley is so good at doing magic tricks), and as Hadley would soon figure, apparent directions to finding him again. Hadley attributes their meeting to his success as a children’s magician! This is why his stage name pays tribute to the Prior Fiore. 
    
    Sadly enough, and through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, those who were after the Prior Fiore believe that Hadley is their target in disguise. SO YEAH. ADVENTURE TO FIND THE PRIOR FIORE AND SHAKE THOSE WIZARDS OFF THEIR TAILS. ALSO. UNIVERSE HOPPING. omg crossovers yess…
     
     DOES THAT MAKE SENSE IT MADE SENSE IN MY HEAD