Kevin sat on the bench in Central Park, watching a few pigeons flutter by, and thinking on his adventures.

He was back home. In the ordinary place he knew, finding his apartment intact, his MTA card still with a few trips left. His wallet still with a bit of cash. Work probably expecting him in tomorrow. Sundays don't last forever, after all.

The ordinary food and drink, the ordinary sky. No aliens, or interdimensional rifts. No people traversing across space in time in mathematical cylinders, or learning to construct universes. No infinite oceans or skies that bent his brain. Just an ordinary city. A nice one, albeit a bit busy, of course. But just ordinary. The Reality he had known.

But what about all the things I left behind? He thought, I would like to see Iami again, and see how their resistance worked out. And those semi-fictional people offered to show me some of their worlds, how cool would that be to see?

He sighed a bit, as a few people rode by on bikes.

And Inzami saved that ship, 'just in case I need it', like she knew something was going to happen later, he thought, and what of Adra? She was... well... kind of special. Concept mixer and universe creator or not... she was... someone I would have liked to get to know better. And I still don't know if I was talking to the real one or not!

He looked out at the sunset, the orange and reddish clouds up above indicating the time passing.

And what of those concept women? I kind of want to ask them why they ditched me, Kevin said, and how their training is going. Not to mention that Nowhere place. I just still can't believe it was all real! It just feels like some sort of mythical dream.

A few more birds flew past, as a couple people looked at their phones as they walked by.

Did I really just go on an adventure across half the multiverse (or at least it felt like it) and not once stop to smell the roses? he thought. Am I really just Kevin from New York City, or some kind of personification of creativity, not to mention template to people across universes?

Do I really want... to just go home?

• • •
The last rays of light faded from from the sky, as the lights flickered on along the pathway.

"It's getting dark, I should probably head back," Kevin said, standing up from the bench.
"You should," Fred said from behind him, standing in a portal-doorway suspended in the middle of the grass, with no visible frame. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yep!" Kevin said, walking towards him, "took you long enough!"

The two of them walked out of the door, out of New York City, out of Earth, and out of any Existence we could consider comprehensible.

But that's another story.

THE END