The Interdimensional Household (Wally AUs)

[𝐏𝐭. 𝟏] 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Hunter Wally sat in his office. The room was dark, only illuminated by the countless screens on the wall in front of him. Teacup Wally slept on his pompadour.

He sighed and leaned back in his swivel chair. Rubbing his throbbing head, he fought the urge to fall asleep.

The last couple weeks had been extremely exhausting for him. Filled with work, work and more work. Keeping all the different Wallys and their alternate universes in check was a never-ending and - quiet honestly - fruitless job. Especially with the never ending expansion of the multiverse. Things just kept getting harder for him. And he had to deal with it all by himself.

Hunter forced himself to skim the displayed data on the screens. Loads of numbers for each universe, always updated every five minutes. Numbers in critical ranges were displayed in red and universes, whose Wallys were currently absent, were listed in an extra window. (Also in red, duh.) On another list were the universes that currently inhabitated more than one alternate.

Opposite Wally and Grayscale Wally had both left their universes. The Rainbow Factory AU and Original Universe each had two Wallys in them. Based of his experience, Hunter knew that Gray was with Rainbow Factory Wally. That meant that Opposite was with Original. Probably by accident. Opposite had a talent for unwillingly stumbling through portals and ending up in all sorts of peculiar situations. Situations that usually required Hunter to rescue the grouchy alternate.

Hunter groaned in exhaustion and pinched the space between his eyes. If he kept dealing with this workload without any changes, he'd suffer from burnout soon. And then the entire multiverse risked either spiraling into pure chaos or collapsing entirely. This was simply unacceptable.

If only he could gather or direct the alternates to one spot, it would save him a lot of time and trouble going to look for them. Like an interdimensional household of sorts... A place that's not its own universe, but still easily accessible for everyone. Like a central hub, maybe?

Problem was: This place needed a sort of protector. A presence that always needed to be there to keep it stable. It shouldn't be a Wally, no. That would create another universe for Hunter to watch over.

The second problem was to get the Wallys to gather there in the first place. Some sort of lure was also needed.

Hunter reached up and gently lifted Teacup from his hair. He cradled the sleeping Wally in his hands and softly pat his hair with his index finger, while he pondered his options.

What could he possibly use as a lure? Apples? Mh, the others knew the majority of his tricks by now. Besides, not every alternate was crazy for apples. Apples won't work. They'd be wary of them. Maybe.

What was something, that every Wally craved the same, but didn't have?

...

...

A neighbor.

And a neighbor was a person! (Ideally) They could function as both, protector of the space and lure, at once! He could kill both birds with the same stone! Perfect. Brilliant.

He chuckled (not unlike an evil genius), still patting Teacup's hair. Hunter reached for his phone and dialed his frienemy's number.

Doot...

Doot...

The phone on the other end of the line got picked up and a bored and tired voice started speaking.

"Rainbow Factory, management office. You're speaking to Dr Darling."

"You still haven't saved my number? Sheesh, RF. That stings."