Chapter One / Chapter One of "Perry's Perfect World" Arc

Young autistic scientist Perry Thompson discovers the secrets of multiversal travel, and visits a universe where everything goes right for him, but nothing is as it seems...

My name is Perry Thompson. I am only sixteen years old, and I am about to unlock the secrets of the multiverse. Secrets that will let me travel between parallel realities with a single device. It wasn’t just for patents or recognition, but to get away from my troubled family.

I was born in 2007, diagnosed with high-functioning autism at two, and was nonverbal for two years before I started speaking. At age eight, I started getting into multiverse theory after watching my dad’s old Sliders and Doctor Who DVDs, and began working on my device, the Odyssey, named after the ancient Greek poet Homer’s epic. What started as a passion project turned into a nightmare for my home.

I began work on the Odyssey at age ten, and at first, my parents, Richard and Beverly, were supportive of my project, with Mom calling me a multiversal prodigy. But as I continued, things started to turn sour. My father began to think I was becoming delusional the further I continued on the Odyssey, but my mom was still supportive. Eventually, this conflict led to a series of petty arguments and fights over my mental health. Dad said I needed to be committed to an institution, while Mom insisted I continue my project. All of this began to take a toll on me, and I started to treat my dad poorly while I idolized my mother for still being proud of me. Dad and I often fought verbally while I continued my work.

Eventually, after four years of fights and concerns for my mental health, they filed for a divorce in 2021, and Dad won full custody of me, prohibiting me from seeing Mom ever again. Now, in 2023, I live alone with my father, still working on the Odyssey and still quarreling with him.

I was in my bedroom early Friday morning, listening to the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet, “Like the Wind,” while I worked on the Odyssey. At the time, it was a huge online search, most of it leading to dead ends. I was applying the finishing touches to the Odyssey’s battery, designed to recharge itself at random intervals after use. Even after six years of work, I haven’t figured out how to get it to open portals to exact parallel universes yet, so every time it’s used, it sends whoever enters the generated portal to a random parallel universe. It could be a universe where humanity never evolved, a universe where “Like the Wind” was never lost, a universe set twenty years behind or ahead of mine, a universe where Nickelodeon picked up Adventure Time instead of rejecting it, anything goes.

After installing the battery on the back and applying the case, it was finished. After six years of hard work and hell in my household, the Odyssey prototype was finally finished. As I observed the prototype for any flaws, I heard a familiar knock on my bedroom door. I sighed as I turned around to see the door open behind me, revealing none other than my father.

“You almost ready for school?” My father asked me when he noticed the prototype in my hands. “Oh. You finally finished it, haven’t you?”

“This is just a prototype, but it’s still capable of sending whoever uses it to…”

“An alternate universe, like you’ve been saying for the past six years, now.”

“I’m serious! If I test it and it works, I’ll have finally discovered multiversal travel. Think of the possibilities!”

“This delusional project of yours is the reason why you can’t see your mom anymore! Also, you said that you haven’t figured out how to travel to exact universes yet,” My father pointed out. “What if you don’t return?”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to return to this dimension!” I blurted towards him, leaving him shocked. “The only reason you divorced Mom is that she actually saw potential in my project. But you? You don’t see the same way she does, and you never have ever since you started fighting with her.”

I got up out of my chair, put the prototype in my backpack, grabbed it, and stormed out of my bedroom past my father. After walking downstairs to the main hall, I left through the front door and began walking to school.

Pathetic. Even after finishing the Odyssey, he still doesn’t see what Mom and I see. Barring me from seeing her at all because I wanted to discover multiversal travel? That’s the pettiest reason I’ve ever heard. If he can’t see what I see, then if my device works, I’m better off traveling across the multiverse than spending another minute with him.