When the Stars Were Right

A pair of teenagers using a quirky AI approach deciphered some old carvings.  They appeared to give  instructions on how to open a gate or a portal to cross dimensions, when the stars were right.  Teenager-like, the two decided to do it and that it would probably be safe because ‘it felt ok.’

They succeeded.  They were instantly transported to a multi-dimensional civilization with portals and gates galore.  Countless realities living cheek by jowl, all the genres and works of imagination made flesh that you could imagine!

Because of that, the boy and the girl were in a sense not nearly the novelty they expected to be.  But they still attracted mass attention.  It seems that every other being, when they crossed a portal, got to transform themselves into a native of the arrival dimension, specifying their characteristics and appearance and nature for their new setting.  But these teenagers had nothing of the kind happen.  They remained a human teenage boy and a human teenage girl.

This was astounding.

Crowds followed them everywhere, with adulation and envy.  They had heard rumors of such a place as Earth, where you were what you were, but they had never imagined anything so fabulous could be real.