“I suppose that makes sense…” Scott looked her in the eyes and leaned forward a little. “So, how does this relate to me being a god of music? I was a normal guy in those memories that I saw.”

“Ah,” she said. Persephone reacquired her tutorial demeanor then waggled her finger. “You crossed from one dimension to another, and in doing so the rule of the crossing influenced you.”

“Rule of the crossing?” he asked.

“Yes. When one with latent talent travels from one reality to another, things can happen that change that talent,” said Persephone. “Usually, it would be something like going from a low magic reality to a high magic one. The deprivation of the spirit suffered in the low magic reality typically leads to a suddenly and intense increase in magical power.”

“Like going from a planet with high gravity to one with low gravity will let you jump farther and lift more weight?” he asked thoughtfully.

“Yes, something like that,” she agreed. “There’s more to it, of course. The transition can put a lot of stress on the mind and spirit. This leads to evolutionary leaps in ability.”

“Evolutionary leaps in ability…” The reveal of that tidbit of knowledge niggled at the dark spaces in his mind.

Once he had wondered why those so-called gods wouldn’t simply send everyone to another world while they fixed their current one, or just make a copy of the original one. Perhaps whoever oversaw the entire mess wanted the natives to unlock their potential for some reason. Though, admittedly they might just be an asshole who enjoyed playing with human lives.

“Anyway, that primordial version of you had a connection to music. He was alone a lot and while he did not consider himself to be very good, he played instruments and sang,” said Persephone.

“The connection between him, the local soul analog, and the crossing sort of converged and he awakened his slumbering chaos,” she continued.

“Awakened his chaos?” asked Scott.

“Yeah, the spark of magic or whatever,” said Persephone. “He defied death repeatedly, blatantly. Each time he should have died he came back from the brink of annihilation much stronger.”

Scott blinked at her. “He, er… I, was a normal mortal right?”

“Normal? Not sure…” she said thoughtfully.

“Mortal?” she nodded.

“Yes, at first,” she continued. “Over time, many battles, and constant death defiance, you reached a state of near-apotheosis. You were well beyond a normal human when it all ended.”

“How did it end?” he asked.

“We don’t know how the actual events ended, only the part you could remember,” she said. Persephone sighed. “Your soul fragmented after being crushed in an intense battle. While you suspected that the primary core somehow recovered and returned to that place stronger than ever, you didn’t know for certain.”

“I guess that would be keeping with the death-defying thing…” agreed Scott.

“Yeah, apparently you even had a catchphrase to explain it,” she said in good humor.

“Oh? What was it?” he asked.

She stood up and played a bit of air guitar then canted her hips and pointed to an invisible crowd. “You cannot kill the metal! The metal never dies!”

Scott blinked quickly then stared at her a little. “Seriously?”

She clapped her hands together then spun back towards him. “Yes! The first song you ever played in the history of the cosmos… was something you called a ‘Cover’ of ‘Tenacious D’. It was called, ‘Tribute.’”

“The… first song to ever exist in this reality was a Tenacious D song performed by me…” Scott acquired a haunted expression. He certainly wished that he could remember that!

“Was I any good?” he asked.

Persephone laughed at him beautifully. It was an answer, but not one he understood due to a lack of context.

Her laugh was infectious but not for the reasons one might expect. Scott was suddenly stricken with a realization of the implications of her words. He burst out laughing. Tears began to roll down his face as he realized the truth.

Persephone laughed along with him but was not certain of why he laughed quite that hard. When she asked him, he tried to answer her between wheezing laughs.

“T-the—” Scott laughed and sucked in air but laughed again before he could answer. It took him a moment to continue his thought. “The first song in creation was a C—” he fell into a fit of laughter once more. “Cover of a Tenacious D song…About a tribute to the best song in the world, which they couldn’t remember…”

“Yes. Is that so strange? The greatest song in the world was forever lost as a brilliant momentary thing of unsurpassable beauty, but you sang a tribute to it…” she replied serenely.

“How did that work out?” he asked her through giggles and tears.

“Well, I did not yet exist… but I did watch a memory of the event…” she said.

“Oh? What did you see?” he asked.

“Well, everyone liked it of course, but the moment you hit that first high note the sky tore apart and a massive explosion rocked the cosmos…” admitted Persephone.

Scott stopped laughing and stared at her bewildered. Was she serious?

“Several infinities were created thus granting mother and father knowledge of how to create varying dimensions…” she said sagely.

Scott’s left eye lid spasmed. Suddenly he burst into laughter once more, and this time lost his balance. He fell backwards into the fountain and flailed around. He could not help himself. He laughed underwater, laughing and drowning as a result.

“Goodness!” cried Persephone. She reached in and yanked him up again, but he continued to bray like the world’s most amused jackass.

Once he finally collected himself enough to answer questions, she asked what had happened to him. He could only titter like an idiot for a moment. Finally, however, he looked to her and said… “Are you kidding? You just told me that a Tenacious D cover song caused the big bang. How is that not hilarious?”

She giggled respectfully but did not know how else to respond to that assessment. Scott, for his part shook his head and tried to fight down the laughter. “Man, I’m glad I didn’t sing ‘Master Exploder.’”

“Hmm? I believe you did,” said Persephone lightly.

“Oh? What happened with that?” he asked curiously.

“Well, Hades and I were just starting to… you know… and he got me a cute little puppy,” she said sweetly.

“Aw, that’s nice,” said Scott with a smile.

She nodded to him. “I let him hear a memory of your first cover of that song…”

“Did it blow his mind?” asked Scott.

“Yes!” she agreed lightly.

“Sorry! What happened?” he asked her, thoroughly amused.

“Well, he was a little dachshund pup….” She said.

“A weenie dog?” asked Scott in high spirits.

“Yes!” she said with a giggle. “But after he heard that song, and you hit one of those reality changing high notes, you blew his mind. He evolved into a giant three-headed dog that breathes fire.”

“Wait…” said Scott, his eyes widening.

“We named him Cerberus at your suggestion,” she announced shamelessly.

Scott made a snerking sound then burst into laughter once more. Persephone lunged forward to keep him from falling into the fountain again.

What was even going on anymore? He didn’t know, but the more he learned about the origin of reality, the more he tried to drown himself in the fountain out of a sense of sheer joy.