Omniverse One

Meta: A person, object, or organization that exists in more or less the same form across multiple timelines. Metas are not logically self consistent within their timeline, and have their own “histories” that span multiple timelines.

Metas are the big players of this universe, and it is they who must ultimately determine its fate or fates.

Flat: A person, object or organization that exists on a timeline and is bound by the consquences of that timeline. They must be logically consistent within their own timeline and thus can easily be defeated by manipulation their past.

While an individual flat is more or less at the mercy of a meta, flats on the whole have a strong influence on history and can often kill an unprepared meta. The only issue is that metas have a habit of not remaining dead.

Timeline: A timeline is a logically consistent, or at least somewhat plausible chain of events. Only one timeline can actually exist; everything is is simply possibilities and are not fully real. It should be noted though, that from the point of view of a meta, which timeline is “real” can seem to change, although from a flats perspective it was always that way.

Possible: A timeline that doesn't actually exist; sort of “possible alternate timeline.” A time traveler whose timeline can no longer exist at all is considered to be from a “possible.”

Meta Rating: A rough measure of how 'meta' an organization of individual.

• 0.0 Totally Flat: An object whose existence is completely logically consistent, and has no presence outside its own timeline. Are totally unaware that time travel is happening/will happen.
  
• 0.5 Aware Flat: Flats who are aware of time travelers, but lack the ability to use time travel themselves. Their interactions with higher-meta forces grants a measure of protection, but only a measure.
  
• 1.0 Time Travel Agencies: Largely flat groups that use time travel to accomplish flat goals. Have a rough ability to protect their own past, but very little in the way of passive protections and are only slightly more stable than flats.
  
• 2.0 Time Colonists: Organizations and people that exist in multiple multiple timelines and are not as vulnerable to retroactive countermeasures; many possible future lead to their existence, logically or not.
  
• 3.0 Time Civilization: Organizations that are almost acausal in existence, seeming springing out of nowhere from the perspective of flats and are thus largely immune to time travel shenanigans. Can access multiple possible timelines, even some of those that can't exist anymore.
  
• 4.0 Time Lords: Masters of space and time; can access not only the real timeline but potential timelines, essentially able to create their own pocket realities and scenarios. Despite this they are not invulnerable to flats within their own present timeline, but their advanced technology largely takes care of that problem.

I like. By the way, I love your reference to "retroactive abortion" in that story of yours.

This must mean my John Baylor character is SUPREMELY meta. I wonder if it is possible for a person to come from a Possible that isn't a reality that no longer exists, but a reality that hasn't existed YET. Is that even possible? Like, a time-dimensional traveler who travels "before" the creation of his own reality. How the hell does that work? Woah!

The Beginning of Time!

Shroom Lanterns have a legend, no one can see the beginning of time. It's a universal law.

Write him a ticket!

Indeed, considering John Baylor, one has to wonder how one could fit this verse into the greater context of the Omniverse canon (admittedly sparse thing it is). While the focus of the verse is "time" and not "space," the mechanics are all there for this verse to very easily interact with whatever other verse it wants to, or perhaps to manage crossovers.

I mean, how hard would it be to mesh the meta Omniverse idea (Baylor, JOHN WEST, Sliding Doors) with the Continuity Wars? Hell, the name has it all: just imagine all the changes that went into verse like TE, Comix, and CSW with the OZ/O1 switch over.

I wonder if a ChronoCop can time travel through the computer screen and, like, totally retroactively abort Acatalepsy himself.

Or if I get stabbed in the face by a Space Knight with a sword that goes SHROOOOOM! That would totally suck.

Actually, I was wondering what the deal with the whole John Baylor thing was, since I haven't been around long. Apparently there is one everywhere? That would make him a massive 5.0 on the MF scale; existing not only in multiple time lines but in multiple realities.

So anyway, where did this guy come from and does anyone have an objections/issues if he shows up in CS somewhere?

He can totally show up in CS.

He started off back in ancient times, before O1 was O1, like half a decade ago when I was trying to write a generic space marine story and John Baylor was my self-insert protagonist space marine lieutenant. Gradually he's evolved into an everyman protagonist, pretty much blue-collar... I guess like an interdimensional Bruce Willis type character? The one who's just an unremarkable shmuck who gets thrown into ridiculous circumstances and bitches and moans about it while kicking (or getting kicked in the) ass and barely making it out alive. I think John Baylor was always a little bit of a dick.

I can't explain exactly how John Baylor ended up in so many verses, with so many people making so many versions of him. I mean, Jesus, Moby's writing a CSW epic starring him, and Malachuschus has an animumu-style kid-character based on him, and now FROD's prospective verse has Baylor as a space baron. It's ridiculous! It's an injoke gone rampant!

Don't forget John Baylor the dirigible-riding African arms dealer in Comix or the one-armed post-apocalyptic private eye in 20XX!

Strictly speaking, there's a version of John Baylor in every universe with roughly the same appearance, temperament and love interest, no matter the context. But then only the tiniest proportion of them are aware of their own counterparts living in other universes, the most prominent example being the original John Baylor as described by Shroom. I'm not sure if John Baylor warrants such a high rating on your scale, considering the massive and resourceful entities he would share it with. He's just a schmuck who's occasionally an action hero, but nevertheless perfectly mortal.

Well, the scale doesn't denote power directly; in-universe it is possible for otherwise wimpy normal humans to be very high up through luck or being part of some other powerful being's plan (higher or lower). The scale denotes resistance to temporal changes; as a general rule the way to get that resistive is to force time and space to do your bidding. But it is possible, albeit unlikely, to simply find a path through spacetime that lets you exist no matter what without really having a lot of power.

In the Continuity Wars, existence in and of itself is notable. If you can exist in multiple possible universes, then you are more meta than someone who can't. After all, any of the 4.0 metas can still get erased (it's really, really hard to do it, but it can be done); Baylor exists regardless of what happens in this universe and therefore is a higher MF level.

It's sort of one of the more interesting consequences (on a meta-fictional level) of having a universe that is so much in flux.