Introduction

& (pronounced “And”) is a former actor who hosts a popular talk show called & Then What?. On the show, they use time travel to interview people from various time periods, although they prefer interviewing ordinary people or nearly-forgotten celebrities rather than historical figures. Recently, & was the subject of a massive controversy when it came out that they possess the power of omniscience. This allows them to select the perfect guests for their show and conduct stellar interviews simply by already knowing what response any potential question will get. Off the air, & is an enigmatic person, kind and usually soft-spoken, but with a flair for the dramatic. They seem to keep their television persona intact at all times.

Backstory

Early Years

& almost never talks about their childhood. A few things are known: they grew up in or near Chicago, they are a middle child out of three, and no one in their immediate family is omniscient. They received the nickname “And” due to their habit of making incessant additions to statements. The name stuck, and they eventually started writing it as an ampersand.

University

In 2138, & began attending university, where they majored in film and media studies. They soon became involved in the burgeoning Terrafilm Underground scene, befriending other film students and local Chicago artists who were pushing boundaries with new experimental styles. During their sophomore year, many of the film students decided to work together on an independent surreal film of their own. The film, titled We Dream Concrete, was very much a collaborative project where everyone had some level of creative input. &’s close friend Tetra Halt was democratically elected to work as director, and & was chosen to act in a major role. They filmed and edited the movie over the summer of 2140 and released it in September, premiering it at a small local film festival.

Upon release, the film got a few good reviews in local publications, but otherwise drew little interest. That was until it received a shout-out from perhaps the most famous and acclaimed Chicago director, Joey Lakomy. Lakomy named it as one of his favorite films of the year, and soon enough the film was getting coverage in major outlets. The attention propelled the careers of many of those involved with the film, especially & and Tetra Halt, before they even finished school. We Dream Concrete would eventually be recognized as the progenitor of the surreal new genre known as the cave flick.

Early Career

After graduating in 2141, & starred in a few other films directed by their classmates and others in the Terrafilm Underground scene. At the same time, Joey Lakomy, who had been very impressed by &’s acting, was writing a part for them in his upcoming film. That film, Virtuous Filth, was &’s big break, and one of the most intense experiences of their life. It was the first time & had acted in a major movie. It was a huge production, with a giant, immensely complex set, a central cast numbering in the dozens, a long script with several interwoven plot lines, and a team of historians to ensure the accuracy of the props, costumes and set pieces.

At the center of it all was &’s character, Sea Form. In 1977 A-Timeline New York City, Sea Form is the founder of a new religious movement based on the sea as supreme deity. They own an office where they offer free spiritual guidance to “lost souls”, who are easily convinced by their uncanny persuasiveness. Throughout the film, Sea Form and their adherents attempt to raise money to construct a 77-foot-tall sea glass cathedral in the middle of New York Harbor. The other characters regard them as a divine messenger—that is, until the end of the film, when their facade falls to pieces. & gave it their all, inhabiting the role to the very best of their ability. When the movie was finally finished in 2144, it was both commercially successful and loved by critics. &’s performance, walking the line between godlike and utterly pathetic, won them multiple awards and quickly became iconic in pop culture.

Following that big success, & had no shortage of offers for parts. They appeared in mostly supporting roles, usually playing a composed, charismatic, unsettling character. But after just a few years, & began to feel dissatisfied. They were clearly being typecast, and furthermore, they weren’t sure if acting was really what they wanted to do with their life.

Ordinary History Hour

Their next venture came as a bit of a surprise to fans. Although the medium of radio had been practically dead for decades, & always had an interest in it, and dreamed of starting their own show. As it happened, so did &’s close friend Liz Ochoa, a historian & had met on the set of Virtuous Filth. Together, they came up with an idea for an educational history program centered around “ordinary” topics; the history of regular people, and how historical events impacted daily life in the past. The show launched on April 3, 2150, with new episodes airing every Friday. It was called Ordinary History Hour.

Perhaps due to &’s existing popularity, the show became impressively successful. It was received well by listeners, who praised the style and personality of the hosts, as well as the educational and entertainment value. The broadcast eventually drew in hundreds of thousands of live listeners, with streams for the digital version numbering in the millions. And Liz and & had a great time hosting it together. But pretty soon, & had an even better idea.

& Then What?

In 2155, & publicly announced they were retiring from acting to focus on an unspecified exciting new project. Unbeknown to their fans, & was pitching a talk show to broadcasting organization XBU. The basic premise involved interviewing guests from past centuries, brought to the present day via time travel, about their lives, experiences, opinions, and memories. XBU were hesitant to pick it up, doubting that a talk show could succeed and citing concerns about possible violations of the Time Travel Treaty. But & continued to push their pitch, and eventually XBU agreed to film a pilot, placing faith in &’s popularity and previous success at reviving a different nearly-dead medium. & brought on a team of time travel experts for the pilot, and hired Liz Ochoa as a producer and one of a team of historical consultants.

When the pilot was filmed in front of a live audience in 2159, it was just about the most transcendent thing anyone had ever seen. In fact, it seemed too good to be true. XBU were certain the interview must have been staged with an actor, and threatened to drop the show. But the show wasn’t staged. The crucial piece of information: & was omniscient, and they had utilized their omniscience to create the best possible version of the show.

During XBU’s investigation into the pilot, & and their crew wrote a document defending the integrity of the show’s production, and in it, & was forced to admit to the power they’d kept hidden for a lifetime. The document was soon leaked to the public, and &’s omniscience claim caused a media frenzy. At first the claim was assumed to be either a delusion or a ridiculous lie, but when the pilot was leaked, and when & did some very strange interviews, the situation started to look different.

After the extensive testing that was demanded of & was unable to rule out the possibility of omniscience, XBU begrudgingly accepted &’s explanation and allowed them to produce a first season of & Then What?. The aforementioned media frenzy ensured the show would be watched by millions of people eager to know whether such a thing as omniscience really did exist.

Present Day

& Then What? was indeed successful. More than just successful; it launched them into worldwide fame and became the most-watched talk show in all of history after just one six-episode season.

Episodes follow a similar structure: & starts by introducing the place and time period of the week, giving a bit of background on what the technology, politics, and social climate were like. Then, the guest is brought on. & lets the guest introduce themself and describe their life in their own words. After that, & asks the guest a series of questions, which vary highly from episode to episode, but which often focus on the guest's personal views, memories, ambitions, and anecdotes. The guest is usually a person of little notoriety, as &’s goal is to bridge gaps across time and space and the best way to do that is focus on ordinary people. Due to the nature of the questions, episodes can get very intense, emotional, and cerebral.

Undoubtedly, & owes much of their show’s success to their omniscience. Without it, the show might not exist at all, just due to how difficult it’d be to execute the premise. &’s power helps them choose someone to interview, know exactly how to bring that person to the present safely, and then know their memories in order to figure out the most interesting subjects to broach on the show. As helpful as that is, there’s still a lot of real work on &’s part that goes into making the show good. & is a well-spoken, interesting person and a charming host, a great speaker who can write excellent questions. And omniscience can do a hell of a lot, but it can’t always resolve subjective matters. That involves personal judgment.

Omniscience

Omniscience is often defined as “infinite knowledge” or “fully knowing all things”. However, &’s omniscience is better defined as the capacity to know all things. & has access to infinite knowledge; they do not know everything passively. It’s more like having a database of fully accurate information in their mind that they can search at will. If they don’t make the choice to search it, they usually won’t know. However, it is possible for & to accidentally activate their power if they think too hard about something, which is really annoying. Additionally, there are other ways for them to mentally access information that they’re not aware enough of to ask a question about, but that involves overly complex mind mechanisms.

&’s omniscience developed in childhood, and it took them years to be able to utilize it fully. It has had an immeasurable effect on their life. Having so much knowledge is overwhelming, but they’ve had years to get used to it. They’re forever thankful it is a conscious power. They wouldn’t be able to handle it otherwise, despite their mental fortitude. Outside their show, they avoid using it much, if at all, in daily life, because it makes it difficult to have normal relationships with people. That kind of discretion requires a strong will.

Personality

&’s internal personality is very different from the image they project. When facing the world, & is cool, composed, and charismatic; they are an expert at relating to people and knowing just what to say. Empathy is practically their job. They’re a serious person, but they also have a sense of humor and drama. They love speaking their mind, and they’re good at it. They go on tangents sometimes, but never about themself, and when the situation requires it, no one is as focused as them. & is a charmer whose closed-off and mysterious nature makes them more intriguing.

That’s the image. None of it is exactly untrue, but it’s far from the whole truth. And of course, all of it is shaped by how the person seeing & sees their omniscience, or the question thereof. There is no & without the omniscience, at least not since it became public knowledge. (& wishes there was. They miss the days before their mere mention inspired such fear, hatred, and idolization in people.)

Their omniscience also obviously shapes &’s private personality and perception of themself. When it comes down to it, & is more than a little neurotic. They’ve fought with themself for years in an effort to avoid becoming corrupted by their power, telling themself they are just like anyone else, no better or worse, no wiser or more qualified, and not deserving of special treatment. Now that other people know about their power, they’re desperate to be seen as a human being like any other. Whether they really believe, deep down, that they are one is uncertain. What is certain is that the public’s perception of &, whether positive or negative, is wreaking havoc on their psyche, although you’d never know it. Inside, they may be freaking out, but they’ve also had to develop some serious strength in order to cope with their most basic internal experiences. They’ll make it, somehow.

Appearance

& is a short cyan person with navy blue hair in an asymmetrical style: mid-neck-length on the right side and short on the left side. Their eyes are entirely navy blue, and they have very long white eyelashes. They have an oval face and soft features.

& is very fashion-conscious. They mostly dress professionally for their show and public appearances, but sometimes they enjoy dressing purposefully tacky. They like to accessorize with self-made jewelry, in particular geometric necklaces. They always have their nails painted, usually gold, but sometimes black, gray, or white. They frequently wear a sharp golden earring in their left ear.

Relationships

Liz Ochoa (link)

Liz and & formally met on the set of Virtuous Filth, where they recognized each other from a club they’d both been in at college. Over the course of filming, they became friends, and have stayed friends ever since. Liz is probably the only person who really knows & as a person. In addition, they are colleagues who have worked together for over ten years, although the time spent on the radio show hardly felt like working for either of them. Liz was the first person to know about &’s omniscience, and when that subject became a massive public controversy, Liz supported & through the whole ordeal.

& is forever amazed by Liz’s ability to trust and like someone she knows to be omniscient. They don’t understand it, but they’re grateful. She’s the only person they can confide in, the only person who is never scared of them or their power and who treats them like a human being equal to her. & loves her. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing; their relationship has endured many messy and difficult periods. But no matter how angry they got at each other, it always brought them closer in the end.

Tetra Halt

Tetra and & went to film school together, where they were friends. They’ve often said that neither one of them would have a career with the other, since &’s performance in Tetra’s first directorial effort, We Dream Concrete, caused & to be noticed, which in turn caused Tetra to be noticed. These days, they’re not as close as they once were, but they’re still on friendly terms.

Trivia

• & collects physical media.
• Their favorite treat is tea and macarons.
• They are a big fan of video essays and watch a new one almost every day.
• An intense fandom has begun to form around &, calling themselves the Andom. They revere & in a way that can be very dehumanizing, despite how they rage against those who would consider & less or more than human because of their power.
• Unsurprisingly, much of the public is terrified of &. Some politicians have even voiced concern that & poses a threat to society.
• & appeared to the writer (me) in a dream on June 23, 2022. If not for that dream, this whole fictional universe would never have come to be!