In a distant corner of the multiverse lies a wholly unremarkable universe. Unlike its sister universes, eagerly churning through intergalactic wars, temporal anomalies, and strange variations on the guidelines of physics, universe 22-3(A) decided to take it easy for a while. Perhaps, 22-3(A) reflected, 15-5 would finally notice her if she got the latest trending physical constants. It was then that 23-3(A) was struck by a sensation not entirely unlike a stiff gust of wind.

The gust was in fact a series of extradimensional transpositions brought about by the multiverse balancing its books from a large energy debt due to an intercosmic war. It is in a fairly standard strand of 22-3(A)'s galaxies, on a planet innocently free of sentient life, that our story really starts to take off. The planet is called Mir, and it is playing space poker with its 3 mis-shappen moons. 

"Oh dear," said Mir, "I do believe that bits of my surface have disappeared." 
Mir's largest moon, Iss, who had a particularly good hand of four craters of a kind, said, "Ah. So you're folding, then." And the game continued as before. 

Sentients, however, have a much harder time remaining nonplussed, and those that suddenly found themselves isolated on a strange new world were no exception. What follows is their stories, and, perhaps, a disruption to a perfectly good poker game.

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