Save State Hero -Ch12- (Patreon)

Edmund opened his eyes and found he was somewhere he didn’t recognize.

Nor did he have a guess as to where he was, either.

It wasn’t a hospital room, or someone’s bedroom.

Nor was it his own home or anywhere else he knew of from friends or work, either. Nothing looked familiar in any regard.

In fact, now that Edmund was actually trying to work his thoughts into some semblance of workable logic, he realized he wasn’t even laying down.

He wasn’t sitting, either.

Edmund was standing upright.

Looking to the left, then the right, he realized he was in an empty room. A strange room with white walls, white floors, and white ceilings.

There were no lights, no seems, no tiles.

There was a door on each wall with a white door-knob without locking mechanisms. Not one thing else was in the room other than Edmund.

“Uh,” he said aloud, his voice coming back to him in an odd way.

“A verbal filler,” reported a voice from somewhere else. There was distinct lack of emotion in the voice, but it wasn’t robotic. More tired and worn out, even if it didn’t sound old. “Considering there is no one else to speak with, we must now be worried for the mental health of Edmund. Documented concern.

“Footnote, Edmund is lacking preset marker forty-two-B, and has a slight intolerance to dairy products due to this. A divergence of less than point zero-zero-zero-zero-two percent.”

“That seems kinda low. Is that a good kind of low, or a bad kind of low?” Edmund asked without considering he was talking to no one.

“In this situation, the number is more than acceptable for it to be classified as within expectations. Footnote added and appropriate marker identified for future research,” stated the voice. “There are also sixteen hairs missing from Edmund, a footnote.”

“Sixteen. Hm. I… yeah, sixteen,” mumbled Edmund. “Uh huh. That’s interesting.”

He wasn’t really interested in the conversation that was being held, but really wanted to know instead where was he. On top of that, he desperately wanted to know how he got here and where the others had gone.

The last thing he’d seen was Alina doing her winged avenger routine.

“It is but also isn’t. A footnote, nothing more,” stated the voice.

“Yeah. Footnote. Got it,” Edmund muttered. He really wanted to ask questions but he didn’t feel as if he could. He had no idea what was going on or even who he was talking to.

“Would Edmund like to move to the next line?” asked the voice.

“I… yes? I’d like to move on?” Edmund answered. Then he began wondering if he really was dead. That this was the afterlife and this ‘line’ was somewhere that he’d be held accountable for his actions. “Wait, next line like I’m dead and it’s time to get judged?”

“Edmund has not moved to a new state. Edmund is still in the same state. Edmund is currently displaced,” stated the voice. “Due to the displacement, we have come to inspect Edmund and determine if there is an outcome that we can assist with.”

“Displaced. Displaced? What… what does that mean?”

“Edmund did too much and no longer has enough to continue.”

“Enough what?”

“Edmund.”

“Yes?”

“Yes.”

Standing there Edmund realized this was pointless, he was trying to get information from a source that didn’t seem stable. Or if not stable, not entirely reliable.

“How do I leave?” he tried instead.

“Edmund would leave by leaving.”

Nodding his head, Edmund then began to slowly shake it back and forth.

I’ll never complain about a conversation with Andrea again.

Never.

“Can I go through the doors?” he asked instead.

“Edmund may traverse the area freely.”

With a click of his tongue, Edmund moved forward to the door directly in front of him. He opened it and looked into the space beyond.

A void waited for him that stretched out into an endless horizon. Spread throughout it were countless save-states.

Floating about in such a way that made it appear like a tunnel. Stretching infinitely outward.

Blinking twice, Edmund closed the door and stared at it inches away.

Oh, there’s no wood grain. It isn’t painted either.

It’s just uh… it’s smooth. Like marble.

But it isn’t marble.

Hm.

Hm, yes.

Very interesting.

“We note that Edmund is experiencing a state of concern,” stated the voice. “Perhaps it’s the discovery of the bank that has pushed Edmund beyond an acceptable deviation.”

“I-uh-ah… no. No, I’m not… no. I’m fine. Just surprised,” Edmund answered quickly, unsure of of how much power this voice had over him. He felt like his words were running away with him faster than his brain could catch up. “You know, tunnel of infinite possibilities and all that shit.

“Not every day you, boom, open a door and hey, there’s the twilight zone. Laid out like a highway and all lit up and waiting.

“Without lights. Or a sun. In infinite blackness.”

“It isn’t infinite,” argued the voice.

“I’m… I’m so glad we can solve that little piece of the puzzle. Puts me at ease. I can just waltz right back in there now, knowing that.”

“Yes. We agree. That is the best course of action. Your time isn’t infinite unlike the space.”

Edmund grunted at that, then opened the door once more.

Stiffening his resolve as best as he could he began walking forward.

Through the sea of save-states that surrounded him in every direction.

His feet managed to land on nothing that he could see, though he didn’t fall into the abyss that fell out below him. Leaving him an ache in his legs and knees that reminded him of staring down a great distance.

As if he were about to fall.

“How am I floating?” Edmund asked in a hiss as he continued to walk.

“Because Edmund doesn’t physically exist in this space. How else would Edmund be floating?” replied the voice. It seemed to always be the exact same distance away from him at all times. “Edmund’s questions are made as if Edmund doesn’t truly understand.

“Edmund is no longer in the Edmund receptacle. Edmund has been forcefully ejected from it.”

“Forcefully ejected. Yeah. But I’m not dead, right?”

“Edmund is not dead.”

“Out of body experience?”

“Edmund was forcefully ejected.”

“How do I get back to my… err… receptacle, then?”

“Edmund can clear Save-states to speed up the process or simply wait.”

Nodding his head, Edmund continued to walk along the strange path he was on. There was an original ambient temperature to the place that’d felt comfortable. He was noticing it was fractionally higher since he’d begun walking.

“Is it getting hotter?”

“Yes.”

“Uhm… why?”

“Because that is the process that must occur for the natural order to resume.”

“I—yeah. Am I gonna burn to death?”

“Edmund is not here. Edmund cannot burn to death.”

“That’s good.”

“Edmund will just suffer endlessly by being burnt.”

“That’s not good.”

“Pain is not infinite.”

“Haha, yeah… no. Okay. Clearing Save-states. How do I do that? Will it harm anyone or anything?”

“Edmund simply needs to inspect a Save-state and then eliminate it by focusing on it and wishing it to disperse. All Save-states with a blue-border may be erased as they exist in the past.

“A Save-state with a gold border may not be accessed. Those with a red-border should not be accessed, but can.”

“Blue good, red bad, gold no touch,” paraphrased Edmund

“Yes.”

Turning, Edmund looked to the closest Save-state.

It was a young woman at a birthday party with a blue-border.

“Oh. Uh. Yeah. Don’t care about that. I thought it’d be more like… main character energy shit,” Edmund remarked as he focused on it. He wanted it to go away.

As if it were a bubble popping, it simply imploded on itself and vanished into nothing. Ceasing to exist as far as Edmund knew.

“Okay. So how many more do I have to do to get outta here?” Edmund asked looking to a Save-state diretly above him.

“Approximately two-thousand,” answered the voice. “Some will count for more, others less. That is the best answer I can give Edmund.”

“Well aren’t you the great and powerful wizard. You’re so precise I feel like I should call you Omega.”

“I am not Omega, nor Zeus. I am Oz.”

“Oz? That’s a frickin’ weird one. Not sure who Omega and Zeus are. Are they like you? Actually, what the fuck are you?” asked Edmund, collapsing a Save-state of someone clearly having sex. The woman involved had been a beautiful green-skinned woman though.

The skin tone reminded him of Faith and that led him to thoughts did his best not to have. To say the Dryad was easy on the eyes was an understatement.

Sometimes his mind couldn’t help itself despite knowing that she was his friend, his boss’s wife, as well as a boss in her own way. The male mind was a cluster-fuck of loose-wires, bad solder joints, and spaghetti code.

“I am Oz.”

“So you mentioned. You didn’t tell me what you are though.”

“Oz.”

“You know, that’s an answer I really should’ve expected. I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t expect it. Other than… you know… I suck at life.”

“Edmund has done well at life despite his starting point.”

“Thanks. I tried. I appreciate the optimism.”

“Edmund has continued to do well despite missing so many opportunities due to character faults.”

“Yeah… we’ll just… yeah. Didn’t need that second part.”

“I thought it would be helpful for Edmund.”

“Nope. No. It wasn’t.”

Edmund collapsed another Save-state, this time it was someone staring down at a pair of very bloody hands. Edmund had no idea what was going on, but he didn’t want to know either.

It really didn’t concern him.

***

“Hey, can I keep any of these?”

“They’re other people’s Save-states.”

“Yeah, got that part, Oz. But can I keep them? Can I load into their Save-states?”

“Theoretically, Edmund could. Yes. Edmund shouldn’t, however. It would create issues depending on the Save-state.”

“What kind of issues?”

“Synchronization and duplication of Edmund. Existing in multiple places at the same time.”

“Oh, that’d be weird. So there’s Save-states where that wouldn’t be an issue?”

“More than ninety-nine percent of the Save-states could be utilized by Edmund.”

Pausing after dismissing yet another Save-state, Edmund considered that. It really only took him a moment to figure it out.

He hadn’t lived that long, but the world was incredibly old.

“Got any caveman Save-states?”

“A great many. They are much further down the path. Edmund could travel there if he wished, though you would need to remove more of those. They don’t hold as much weight as more recent Save-states.”

Ha… it’s gotta be the number of people. The sheer bulk of people involved each time.

Kinda like some of those video games where save-files get super huge after you play it for a while.

With so many people in the world every Save-state has to plunk down all the information for them and everything about them.

Edmund rapidly shook off the thoughts that often came with his ability.

That he was more akin to some type of god or demon given what he could do. To him, the world almost didn’t exist at times.

To be frank about it, he didn’t have enough mentality to really approach what it all meant with a clear mind. That might lead to questions he couldn’t answer, and wouldn’t want to know the answer to.

“I’m smart enough to know I know nothing at all,” he murmured collapsing yet another Save-state.

“Edmund’s intelligence statistic is indeed above average,” Oz declared.

And here comes the “two” of the Oz One-Two.

Yet nothing more was said.

“Thank you,” Edmund said looking down to his feet at another Save-state.

“There is no need for thanks. Edmund properly realized he isn’t a genius. I was merely agreeing with you.”

Ah… there’s the second half.

“It’s still getting hot, isn’t it?” asked Edmund as he shut the Save-state. They were now approaching a warm day in summer kind of heat.

“Yes. The thermal cycle will continue to rise until the task is complete. There is no inbetween state.”

“Goodie. How far uh… how far in am I?” Edmund asked. He felt like he’d been at this for a good while.

“Edmund is halfway.”

“Ergh. Could you help me? Can you close some of them for me?”

“No.”

“Can you… help me close them?”

“Yes.”

“Really? Great. Help me with that then.”

“If I assist Edmund, there is a good chance that others might notice the changes. There are several others like Edmund who could cause problems if they wished to.”

“I mean… if I don’t do this now, and fast, won’t I burn to death?”

“Edmund cannot die here.”

“Won’t I burn indefinitely?”

“Edmund won’t burn indefinitely.”

“Won’t I burn for quite a long while?”

“Edmund will burn for eons.”

Closing his eyes tightly and dismissing yet another Save-state, Edmund took in a short breath. Even if he was risking the appearance of others, the idea of burning for eons sounded agonizing.

“Alright. Help me out here Oz. I could use a hand closing all these things up. And uh… weird question, can I make a Save-state, of this moment?” Edmund asked.

Oz didn’t immediately respond.

For a while.

When Edmund closed the seventeenth Save-state in a row without a respond he was starting to get nervous.

On the sixty-sixth he was genuinely concerned.

It wasn’t until the hundredth and he could feel a shift in the temperature again that he truly regretted asking the question.

Then suddenly the heat of the place fell away. Vanishing into absolutely nothing and returning to the original temperature he’d felt.

“Edmund may make a Save-state here,” Oz declared.

Doing just that, Edmund plopped down a Save-state.

In doing so he noted that he actually had four Save-states available to him. He was pleasantly surprised by that.

The freshly made Save-state appeared right in front of himself amongst the numbers of others. A blue bordered Save-state floating in the blankness of space.

“I was able to fetch all the Save-states required to subvert the increase in thermal activity and overlay them with Edmund’s active work,” continued Oz. He sounded a bit more energetic for some reason though Edmund had no idea why. “In doing so, I limited the possibility of others noticing and coming over here. That isn’t to say it won’t happen, but it is less likely.”

“And that’s why you said to put down a Save-state,” Edmund said.

“Edmund is Edmund. His ability is absolute.”

“Why?”

Standing there, Edmund regretted his question immediately.

It was a question that felt a lot like asking the meaning of life. The answer would be pointless or earth-shattering.

There wasn’t going to be an inbetween.

“Because Edmund is Edmund. Edmund is absolute. There is no other answer.”

Pointless answer.

“You understand my power completely, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“If I die… do I auto-load a Save-state?”

“No. Edmund would be dead.”

“Right… yeah… that’d be too easy, wouldn’t it. Right. Okay uh… if I load my Save-state, would you know I did?” asked Edmund

“No,” Oz stated simply.

Edmund promptly loaded his Save-state.

“I was able to fetch all the Save-states required to subvert the increase in thermal activity and overlay them with Edmund’s active work,” repeated Oz. “In doing so, I limited the possibility of others noticing and coming over here. That isn’t to say it won’t happen, but it is less likely.”

“Yeah,” Edmund murmured and felt that there was so much more to all of this. So much more and that he didn’t really want to touch it at all.

That even a presence such as Oz, that felt almost godlike in a way, was beholden to his power felt almost frightening.

Terrifying.

“Now what?” asked Edmund.

“Now Edmund may return if he wishes.”

“Kay. Uhm. Can I come back here whenever I want?” Edmund asked.

“No. Edmund would need to be ejected from Edmund’s receptacle. Doing that deliberately would be detrimental to Edmund. It is unadvised.”

“Yeah… yeah I get that. That makes sense. Alright. How I do?”

“Edmund did well.”

“No… that… err… how do I leave? How do I do this?”

After asking that, Edmund found himself standing next to the car he’d been at before being “ejected” as Oz had described it. In fact, he watched Alina standing up.

One foot on the back of the woman’s shoulder and the other on the pavement. She had her glowing gold sword held in one hand and it was held near the woman’s neck with an obvious intent attached to it.

If she tried anything at all, he imagined Alina would just slash her and be done with it. There likely wouldn’t be room for anything else to happen.

“Well that was exciting and out of the ordinary,” Dorothy said and turned to look at him over the top of the car. “You look better, by the way. For a moment there you were as white as a ghost.

“Thought maybe I’d have to see if there was a medical kit in the trunk or glove box. You’re not diabetic or anything like that are you? Having some type of low or a high and you end up on the ground?”

“Oh… maybe just a little anemic at times. Nothing too bad. I recover quickly enough,” Edmund lied. It was something that anyone could ever prove true or false as far as he knew so it felt like a solid answer for the situation.

It was also the only thing he’d come up with.

“I’ll start keeping granola bars and things on my person then. My purse isn’t that big but it’s big enough,” Dorothy muttered and looked into the car at said purse. He’d noticed she had a habbit of looking at or to whatever she was talking about.

When he thought about it, he’d noticed the same behavior from Ryker.

“Is Ryker your dad?” Edmund blurted out. He didn’t see a need to go help Alina. She had things under control.

Besides, his brain was already throwing him under the bus as it was with what he was asking Dorothy. Adding Alina to the mix would just make it worse.

“Might as well be. He isn’t though,” Dorothy answered, watching him again. “Raised me, taught me magic, gave me a home. All that stuff.

“As I mentioned earlier, my only family is Rob. He’s my uncle. He apparently left his job to go find me but Ryker had already taken me in by that point. We only ran into each other later on when I was at school. Uncle Rob had come to talk to him about trying to find me and… I was just there.

“Was kinda funny. The look on Ryker’s face was hysterical. His wife Robin started laughing and didn’t stop for a while. Even then she’d break out in giggling fits whenever I came around. She told me later on it’s because of how it all worked out. That Ryker had apparently planned on killing him but spared him for no reason.

“Only for him to find out he was my uncle. Now Uncle Rob and Ryker get along okay. They’re not friends or anything but they tolerate each other well enough. They even talk often and politely.

“Uncle Rob just… uncle Rob is fairly easy going now but I hear he was a real giga-douche back in his youth. He and Ryker knew each other then.”

“Giga douche. Ha,” chortled Edmund. He hadn’t expected to see such a human side to Ryker though. Things were spiraling faster and faster out of Edmund’s existing expectations. In ways he hadn’t considered and didn’t want to consider.

“Robert was never a friendly individual,” Oz stated somewhere over Edmund. “Ryker is also not a friendly individual. Both individuals have many character flaws that prevent them from living up to the potential in their possibilities.

“Edmund has also failed to do so, but does much better than every other individual in existence existing now or in the past.

“Edmund is of course Edmund.”

Staring at Dorothy, Edmund had no idea what to say.

The fact that Oz was here made the world suddenly horrific to him.

“I mean, people end up getting along when they didn’t think they would. Things change, right?” Dorothy said with a wide smile.

“Dorothy still has a romantic interest in effect for Edmund. Edmund does not have the same romantic interest. Edmund’s romantic interest is in effect for Romina. Footnote added,” Oz reported to nobody.