It made a vague sort of sense to me.
Potential being what you could be.
But to live to your potential, you have to decide. You have to make choices; with the whole reality splitting with each fork/choice you make.
But to choose means that your have to cut off a path, to lose the potential of the fork/choice you DIDN'T take.
And Onald could not bear to do so, to lose his potential, to cut things off. As that would be 'killing' a shadow of himself...
So he sold off his potential. Granting them existence. The 'could have beens', the 'might have beens', they still exist.
But that still doesn't mean that a "choosing none of the above" isn't a choice of its own.
Kimiko, likely, was walking down the same path... suffering dejection and such from her wild might haves, could have beens... her potential.
If she had accepted the offer... likely something bad would have happened.
When the weight of what could have been, should have been crashed back down on Onald. Kimiko gave him back what could have been; "R"... making his story/tale/whatnot a possibility.
Or I could be babbling away and making no sense whatsoever. :lol:
Dresden Codak tends to do that to me.