Billions of year after the Great Galactic Empires had peaked and science was finished, the stars began to die, and no new ones were made.
And somewhere, in a remote patch o space, a lion came upon a owl.
"Hello, lion said,"do we know each other?"
"I...don't think so" owl said. "Well, which civilization do you come from?"
"I...don't remember what they're called, owl said,"I think they had a few wars and watched TV every now and then, I guess."
"Yeah", lion said, "that's sounds like my civilization, too. Is yours gone as well?"
"Well they're all gone.", owl said, "We're the last ones left, don't you know."
The lion looked out at the universe and knew owl was right. All the nebula were coming apart, all the galaxies were fading.
"How long do we have?", lion said.
"Well, not long", owl replied, "very soon now the Universe will collapse back in on itself."
"Huh", lion said, "what happens then?"
"Oh, everything will be gone", owl said,
"no more walking, no more fun, no more swimming."
"Huh, lion said again,"Well, what was your civilization like?"
"Mh, owl said, She pointed with her wing."You see that star? My whole civilization began there. And that galaxy? They spread through the whole thing. Made music, wrote books, married, divorced, lived, died, had wars, apologized, had wars, blew everything up. A billion years of empire of languages, thousands of planets, and now, all gone."
"All gone", lion whisper.
"And how about yours?", owl said.
"Well, my civilization discovered the workings of Nature, knew how it was all put together, build enormous starships, traded with thousands of other empires, traveled the entire cosmos, learded everything there was to learn, then came right back to where they started. Saw everything, gave up "
"Pity" owl said, "anyway, the end will be here soon, it's been lovely chatting." Owl closed her eyes and was silent.
Lion looked out again at the dying universe, and felt very sad.
"What was it all for? he said finally.
"What?" owl said.
"What was the point?"
"Oh, what's the point in anything?" owl said with a hint of a smile. She closed her eyes again.
An idea came to lion then.
"We know everything," lion said, "everything out civilization knew."
"Sure," owl said.
"And we can do anything, we are all powerful."
"Well, within limits." owl said
"Well, why don't we remake the universe?"
"Well that's impossible," owl said, "we couldn't survive the collapse. It's very close know, just over there."
"Well, then, we'll set the universe up properly then, for whoever comes after."
Owl opened her eyes, "like, how?"
"I don't know, make it more interesting, change the rules a bit. Come they will never know, it'll be fun!"
Owl considered this idea. She was very clever after all. Under different circumstances, she might have gone on TV talking about astroplysical matters, you never know.
"Alright", owl said, "I'm listening."
"Well," lion said, "Let's make everything based on subatomic particles this time"
Lion began setting up the new universe.
"And we'll make olives taste nice this time."
"OK, good idea." owl said
"And fruit will grow on trees."
"Sounds good." owl said
"And every now and then, after a good meal, people will throw up a bit in their own mouths."
"What?" owls said, "why?"
"I don't know, it'll be funny." lion said
"Don't put that in," owl said.
...
...
[ Lion put in in ]
Then he organized physics, and chemistry, and biology, and made then all interact and build in emergent properties, invented quantum field theory, and debugged everything. He made water wet and deserts dry, and Tom Hanks impossible to dislike, and finally, he was done.
"It's still missing something," Lion said, "should we, maybe, add more purple?"
"No, it doesn't need more purple," owl said.
"Hey! Maybe coffee should make everyone shit real bad right?!"
"Don't...put that...in" owl said
...
...
[ Lion put it in]
"There," he said, "perfect! Let's get this sucker going."
"No, wait," owl said, "we're still missing something, we forgot to make things...difficult."
"Difficult?" lion said, "No, we'll make this the party cosmos, whiskey on trees, walking burgers- that kind of thing."
"No, owl said," look where that got our civilizations. Everything was boring, it was too easy. We will make living tricky, but not too tricky. That way, they'll be a point at least, for a while. We'll make the stars so far away they have to get clever to reach them, we'll make nature JUST weird enough to be interesting, but not so weird they can't crack it. And we can't put the meaning of life in plain sight, It'll have to be a challenge. They'll need to fall in love, or go backpacking, or argue in the social media or something."
"Alright," lion said, and made the changes.
They sat back then, and admired their blueprint of the cosmos, to be.
No one could doubt that is was, indeed, very pretty. Around them the starts were going more crazy now. The light was dying. Infinite space was reclaiming its territory.
"Is this it"? Lion said.
"This is it," owl replied.
"What will happen to us now?" lion said.
"Oh, we'll be gone, everything will be gone. Then the new universe will start, just how we designed it."
The darkness came down all around them. History was dying, the end was just moments away.
"owl, I'm scared," lion said.
"I know, lion," owl said, "but it won't hurt. Here, put my wing in your paw, and don't let go."
The last start died finally, and space began to collapse into a point infinitely small. Time and space falling apart. Billions of years had come to this, and soon, it would be for nothing. At all.
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...
...
...
"Will they see, lions said," in the next cycle. Do you think they'll see how beautiful everything is?"
" Sometimes," owl said," only sometimes. All the time will be too much, never would be too little. Every now and then. They'll see it sometimes."
"And that will be...enough."
