The Secret of Edd: 0rigins

Now, what the heck is this '0rigins' story anyway?

Is that '0' SUPPOSED to be there instead of an O?

Is this aluding back to that universe the gate got opened to back towards the end of TSoE?

'0rigins' is an alternate universe story I began when I got stuck with editting the main story arc. For me, the end of TSoE begins to lack a sense of elements of mystery weaving together---it's the ending, so resolution is expected.

But it didn't feel resolved. I didn't know what Tony came into this for, so I certainly couldn't make him explain it either.

I didn't know how the kids managed to wander where they did without running into something that could have killed them easily, unless that vampire Kevin from that world was making things easier---or unless Tony was. Another plot point hinging on him? I still don't know why he's there! So I got frustrated.

The happy-ending tweaked at me too---a lot of circles in time got introduced when the kids got back without any problem. More than made sense, on their own. So something had to have inclined these 'accidents' to occur... but who? But what? Not Tony, he got left behind.

Pondering these things, I found myself writing out this tiny bit of a story concept. The kids, back from 8-3-2, wandering into the cul-de-sac. There was noise, there. There were a large number of cars, even a police vehicle. There were all the signs that something was up.

A sentence emerged, and a paragraph of explanation after it, and I realized that this was a story being told by a very specific narrator...

Oh, yeah, people… One thing was different for us, when we got back to the neighborhood, which we noticed pretty quickly. You see, when Kevin first grabbed the remote from Eddy’s throw off that building, he never pressed any buttons. Kevin didn’t attempt to solve the problem on his own, he tried to get it to me—after all, I had already used our remote a number of times. Logically Tony’s, which had been based off of ours, would be similar, and I would know what to do with it. Logically. Therefore, we didn’t have the, *ahem*, luxury experienced by those versions of ourselves whom you are already familiar with. When we came to in the clearing, in our own universe, we didn’t have any incident involving a mirror and an unexpected reflection. After all, Kevin still had no reflection. He never would again.

The story... of if that particular quirk hadn't occurred.

Such a story would have a darker ending, after all. And I decided to explore it a bit.

A LEAST a year passed, after I wrote those bits, in which I did nothing with this story. I felt like I should edit the earlier parts of the story before I went writing my own AUs into the mix... but, well, this just came to feel more interesting.

So, I forced it into a level of relevance. And then I just let it wander into random, metaphyscial philosophical musings on the edge of existence.

*shrugs*

You be judge how it came out. I like it, anyway.

The writing style employed after Edd and Eddy died(?) was inspired in part by the ending of "A Ring of Endless Light" by Madeleine L'Engle, and the end of "More Minds" by Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman.

Now, um. The fourth chapter would be the definitive evidence that I easily amuse myself. As far back as editing Part 6 of TSoE, I realized that things seemed to work together too well. I had adjusted the story-line from the earlier, limited idea of the Kankers being the final foes to adding Tony into the mix---and you can see where that's led to. Then I wanted to explain why the heck Tony got involved, so I looped some of the writing around, adding conversations and details into the earlier parts that helped explain it all again. The part in which Tony actually explained his purpose didn't really explain it to the reader---after all, the characters would be like normal people, getting frustrated, impatient, and continuing to not believe him. Why would they wait around for the entire conversation, or him to fulfill whatever plans he had? No, I figured, it made more sense to cut Tony off early, and write sequels in which I could continue to explain what happened.

I had meant to write sequels all along. Early on, back around part 5 and part 6 of the ORIGINAL writing ((back in 2002)) I'd had a list of sequels to write. Eddy getting sent off to wherever his parents were threatening to send him... them getting regretful and pulling him back... the first parts of school... Edd finding out he's gonna have a little sibling... Edd's parents, finding out that the vaccination failed, upping its strength and MOVING---He would have gone to Kiwi High, in another suburb surrounding a different city, for at least half a year. His sibling being born... moving back to Peach Creek... flash a few years into him and Marie's relationship, Eddy teaching young Tasha some of the trick of the things he's learning... and so on, until around the point in time that Tasha, as she appeared in TSoE, was from. And shortly after going back, meeting the younger Edds and getting their views on the story, Tasha would decide to go time-traveling herself: and meet the older brother of 'Uncle' Eddy. Tasha would wander into 8-3-2 in the same time period that the others wandered through... she'd probably run into Edward, Marie, and the others on their run to the bomb shelter, and have to wipe their memories of it. She'd probably have a chat with the vampire-Kevin of that world, thus explaining why he never shows up again. And she'd probably head up to the building, able to control herself well enough not to get sucked up, and bring Tony with her. They'd chat, he'd offer to teach her, she would be interested in doing so... and eventually Edd would find out. It'd cue the kind of Ultimate Enemy of cartoon shows of some lovely Good vs Evil mental duels and such.

Then I got stuck with the ending of TSoE. Repeatedly. Despite even asking Beansie to edit and help me out with wrapping it up, I still got stuck, and generally vanished from the writing-aspect of FF.Net and DeviantArt. Then, this last year, I decided "The heck with it---I wanna write a sequel." Inspired by the AU fic that someone sent me OF TSoE, I decided to write an AU of my own story. I mean, what with them interacting with three alternate universes IN the fic already, AUs are pretty much acceptable to the story, no matter what it is. So... I got this little plot bunny, this little excerpt of an idea.

I hadn't wanted Eddy to die, in TSoE. Not staying dead. The fic, while it had random aspects of life that didn't quite fit with the suburbia-happy image, wasn't a morbid story. And besides, the gate has nearly infinite potential. If you can travel to another universe, and if you can have the time be different in those other universes, then you can certainly travel to a different time in your own universe. Presto: loophole for Eddy to survive.

Then I realized, if the universes are infinite, if every possibility gets played out... then you have an infinite number of universes in which the "Bad Guys" win. The Heartless spread and darkness voids all, the Covenant activate the rings, an android kills a kid named Conner (or whatever his name is)... Sephiroth and Jenova summon Meteor, or Cloud dies in that fight at the end of Advent Children, and the Lifestream gets absorbed and off they go... whatever. The 0 gate opens and destroys the world. Multiverses seperated from the others, in which they get destroyed.

So even though I saved Eddy with my temporal-loophole, for some infinite number of kids from the cul-de-sac, he didn't get saved.

As I'd said above, my plot bunny for this story was described in two things that I wrote out in a journal:

Oh, yeah, people… One thing was different for us, when we got back to the neighborhood, which we noticed pretty quickly.
You see, when Kevin first grabbed the remote from Eddy’s throw off that building, he never pressed any buttons. Kevin didn’t attempt to solve the problem on his own, he tried to get it to me—after all, I had already used our remote a number of times. Logically Tony’s, which had been based off of ours, would be similar, and I would know what to do with it.
Logically.
Therefore, we didn’t have the, *ahem*, luxury experienced by those versions of ourselves whom you are already familiar with. When we came to in the clearing, in our own universe, we didn’t have any incident involving a mirror and an unexpected reflection.
After all, Kevin still had no reflection. He never would again.

With enough time (and an infinite number of Eds, Edds, etc should have time) there should be a kind of temporal-universal waystation. Like in the So You Want To Be A Wizard books, with the place for traveling around the galaxy with---but with multiverses and time-travel. Some other sets of Eds would be the major builders of it, but the TSoE kids could certainly volunteer. How many other shows, books, and games can have characters crossover into the TSoE-verse by wandering into there on accident, during their travels?

I had decided, I'd start writing out the story of the Edd who, in his universe, Eddy was never found again. I'd go so far as to bring the dream that I kept looping into TSoE, and explain it as having been from this Edd's point of view. And to really wrap it up, I'd stick that Edd into the timestream too. Somewhere. As a completely eclectic and non-specific spiritual person, his essence---however defined---being reborn. Conveniently in Tasha, and then getting split among her and that Edd, and on... and on...

And then, rambling, I wrote out a bunch of Edd and Eddy interacting in the void. I tied in bits of a story I was writing for school, and another story I'm writing to eventually publish, and have the nothingness on of infinite potential, rather than simply destruction. And.. finally... I'd make that place that would be the way-station be created in the space between universes: the infinite potential. The place that Edd, Eddy, Tasha, and Tony chatted in this last chapter.

The Secret of Edd "0rigins"