Per 
An abyss in the Abyss, an aptly named portal (for it was the size of a doorway) appears only to permit a lone figure into the blankness, and nothing more.
…
…
What the hell?
Holy shit, that's new.
More? For gods sake, more?
I-.. I'm sorry?
Yeah, so am I. Sorry I woke up again.
Are you… alright man?
Couldn't be less alright, but thanks for asking. Do you know where I am? I'm supposed to be dead.
No, you're not quite dead. I'm uh, I'm the welcoming committee around here. Welcome to the Abyss.
How do I leave?
Well, you kinda… don't. But you're the first to arrive in such a spectacular fashion.
Tell me about it. It was spectacular on the other end too. I think I still have pieces of china on me.
You… you remember the other side?
Wish I didn't.
This is spectacular! Maybe you can get us both out of here!
Who is we?
Oh, sorry. Adamo Smalls, Foundation Memetics Division.
Really? Jesse Mantell, Foundation Reality Division.
Of course! How else would you end up here in such a manner?
See, you named "here", but I still have no idea what here is.
You want the working theory?
Fire away.
So there's a skip, right? 3309. Initially we thought it was a glitch in the catalog system, the phrase "If you are not the author and you want to rewrite this article, you may reply to this post asking for the opportunity to do so. Please obtain permission from the author." was appended to documents. Then the document and everything it described would be erased from existence, as if it never was.I was working on it, and one day, I just slipped out of the world. Forgotten by everyone. Every once in a while it hits someone else new. As if the universe would suddenly decide something needed to happen.
Huh. Kinda sounds like that Cygnus thing Director Lifeson was attempting to clear up. Seems like so long ago now.
Cygnus? Like, a swan?
Yeah but infinitely more of a bitch. More like a goose actually. A Canadian goose of a deity. Fancies themselves a god of balance, wipes things out to prevent unfavorable edits to the time-space continuum.
Something is… very familiar about that, but I can't place it.
So, how did you come to be here?
Oh, I blew up.
So, not Cygnus then I take it? Kinda ruins our working theory.
No, actually. I came here on my own power, I guess. Hume accident, long story. Y'know, I was briefly more powerful than God, like the capital G one.
Oh, that's… worrying. So if you came here on your own terms, couldn't you technically get back too?
I suppose if I tried. But I'm not truly inclined.
How so?
Promise you won't laugh?
Wouldn't dream of it.
No one liked me. I was the underling to the underlings, the butt monkey of the jokes and the load-bearing ox of the workforce.
Yikes.
And you know what made it even worse? They had the audacity, the audacity to treat me better when I was gonna die.
Well that sounds like a nice thing, what's the problem?
Oh, I don't know, the fact that it was only because I could have exploded at any second and ended their lives in an instant?
Wouldn't they come here?
We didn't know that. So they tried to get all buddy-buddy so I didn't reality nuke them.
Have you considered maybe they were just trying to repent?
No, I hadn't.
I mean think about it. You, as you described, shit on your lackey his whole career, and suddenly he comes down with this terminal illness. Wouldn't you feel sad, try to apologize?
I… suppose? I'd never thought of it that way.
Come on, they can't be that bad. It's workplace banter at worst, right?
And the extra workload. And the social ostracization… but I suppose that is to be human?
Look, I've been here for about a year now, and it doesn't get any easier telling people their fate. But if I can avoid a permanent end for you, I'm going to do my damnedest.
What permanent fate? Where is everyone you said comes down here?
Adamo leans over Jesse's shoulder from behind, to share his perspective, and points into the great beyond.
You see that mist?
Yes.
Everyone sits here for a while. They beg, they plead, and they bemoan their fate. Until they get bored. Until they're so unequivocally disinterested that they decide maybe they could just take a brief look at what's beyond the fog.
And then?
I don't see a single one ever return.
And you?
No matter how far I walk it won't take me. Either you suffer my fate or theirs, and I won't have it. So, do your thing.
My what thing?
Make a portal back.
I can't just do the portal thing.
Just do your wizard thing. Pizzazz, Shazam, and whatnot.
I've never done it on purpose.
Humor me.
For the first time, instead of suppressing himself Dr. Mantell begins to let the ink of the parchment he's written on flow through him. And then he does the only thing he can think to do: concentrate very very hard.
I think… I think there's something here….
It's working! Keep going Jesse!
The power, for the first time, he feels wane.
This is not going to last.
You're almost there, one last push!
It's a wormhole, not a baby!
Give her more!
As the last of his power fades from his body, the breach is completed. Jesse Mantell accomplishes in 45 seconds what a team of highly trained scientists tried and failed to accomplish in a month and a half, and at the same time, opens a whirling funhouse mirror facade.
I feel… drained.
Quick, we don't know how long it's gonna be open for! Go!
Aren't you coming with me?
You have a job to do: stop Cygnus and this strange perfectionist crusade. I have mine, here.
Are you sure?
That I want to? No. That it's the right thing to do? Yes.
Thank you, Smalls.
You're welcome, now go!
