Why I Keep Escaping Into Universes That Don’t Exist

Some people drink. Others scroll endlessly on their phones. I… dive into fictional timelines. I wish that was a joke. But lately, when the world feels too sharp, too loud, too real, I find myself going back to the same old archives — timelines of events that never happened, in places that don’t exist, with people who never lived. It sounds insane, I know. But if you’ve landed here on Multiverse-DB, maybe you get it too.

I used to think it was just escapism. And yeah, maybe it is. But it’s also something more. There’s a strange comfort in knowing that in some alternate Earth, the hero always shows up on time. The villain monologues just long enough. The city doesn’t burn. The people are saved. There’s structure. There’s symmetry. There’s justice — something we don’t always get here.

I mean, look around. News cycles spin faster than anyone can keep up. Everything’s either on fire, underwater, or being yelled about on social media. And in between that, I’m supposed to file taxes, answer emails, pretend like any of it makes sense? I don’t know, man. Sometimes it’s easier to follow a timeline where all the chaos is at least scripted.

I was reading about the DC multiverse the other night. Apparently, after all their reboots, the number of official universes went from infinite to 52, then to some “omniverse” thing where everything counts again. I don’t fully get it. But I also kind of love that. The idea that nothing is ever really erased. That even a scrapped version of a story still exists somewhere. That your mess-ups aren’t gone — just… moved to another Earth.

One of my favorite what-ifs is simple: “What if I left earlier?” Not exactly a superpower, I know. But there are nights I lie in bed thinking about the version of me who walked away when she should’ve, who said no, who didn’t apologize for things that weren’t her fault. She’s out there somewhere. In Universe-137. I hope she’s okay.

I don’t mean to make this sound all gloomy. There’s joy here too. There’s something undeniably fun about watching different versions of Spider-Man argue with each other, or seeing a villain become a reluctant hero in one timeline and a total monster in another. I still laugh like an idiot at the idea of a talking raccoon flying a spaceship. Fiction is ridiculous. And that’s kind of the point.

Maybe it’s not about escape, really. Maybe it’s about resonance. About seeing yourself — the parts you like, and the parts you try to hide — reflected in exaggerated, impossible mirrors. About knowing that somewhere, your story could go differently. Or maybe it already is.

Multiverse-DB is messy. It’s not polished. The pages load weird sometimes. But I keep coming back. Because this little archive reminds me that someone out there, once, cared enough to document the chaos. To map the un-mappable. To believe that even in broken timelines, meaning could be found.

So if you’re reading this and wondering if it’s weird to care so much about fictional histories… it’s not. Or at least, you’re not alone in it. Maybe we’re just looking for a universe that feels a bit more forgiving than this one. And hey, if we can’t find it, maybe we’ll just write it ourselves.