explosivecombat | 028. [Text]

[Well. The previous night's sleep was absolutely hideous, for reasons that Kimblee really doesn't want to discuss, especially not with the network as a whole; however, the lack of contact with people is possibly the last thing he wants.

So. Polling the audience time again. Let's do this thing.]

While I know that this world has a tendency to pull some strange sorts of mayhem when it comes to bringing people here, have any of the rest of you found people from a different version of the world you came from? I'm not talking about different points on the timeline - though if any of you have experienced anything particularly strange on that front, I'm interested in hearing about that as well. What I'm referring to are instances of the world being identical up to a point, and the subsequent differences led to the timeline of your world and the timeline of this alternate version being entirely different.

From what I understand, this can lead to things such as another version of you living out an alternate version of your life; an example of what things might have been, if you made different choices. I know that it's a popular theory, philosophically, but have any of you received irrefutable evidence that that's the case in whatever reality you came from?

Because I have.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In what way do you mean?

Did they come to you, or did you find a way to go to their timeline?

Ah. Neither, actually - we met here. So technically we both went, but it was against our will on both sides.

Huh. That's disappointing. Has anyone said they had evidence prior to coming here?

Yes and no - I suppose that depends on what one considers to be its own contained world or dimension.

Mind giving an example?

Wait until the individual who believes we're all in some sort of arcade-based video game starts talking to you. He's...quite the interesting one.

[...]

That's quite the delusion. And this person said there was an alternate version of him whose world didn't match up with his own?

No, he seems to specialize in other bouts of reality-bending nonsense; the bit about the alternate version is something that I've been told about. Apparently there's some other version of me running about in another dimension that's very similar to my own, but with enough crucial differences to make it plain that it's not just a matter of timing.

I'd be surprised if your 'when' was the only difference, really. If whoever's in charge here has the ability to pull in people from multiple realities, it seems unlikely that he'd gather everyone from the same one. Those who run experiments tend to want a wide test variety. Alternate realities is a good way to grow that.

Operating under the assumption that this is some sort of experiment, then?

A behavioral study makes the most sense, with the lack of direction. Why else would we have been brought here with no instruction other than "wander around and do your best"?

You'll have to forgive my skepticism, but I've been here about two years now; at this point I'm willing to assume we're here due to someone's incompetence. Exactly whose incompetence, I couldn't say, but it's honestly more likely than anything else I've heard thrown around, theory-wise.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity and all.

[CONGRATULATIONS DAL btw.]

You'd think stupidity could be fixed (or at least not repeated) in two years. Three, actually, from what I hear.

[Ah, thank you!]

Three years is what I've heard as well; either way, however, there's a possibility that the length of time is more or less irrelevant - after all, isn't it possible that whatever was done can't be easily undone?

Sure. But if that was the case, I'd think we'd be kept updated on the situation. Even a vague promise that they're working on it while not admitting their incompetence should have come up in that amount of time.

That assumes that they're rational human beings, for one thing; for another, it assumes that they care.

There are many possibilities to be pursued here, really; shame no one's come forth about any of it. Honestly, the main reason I maintain that it's not an experiment is that if that's the case, it's the most poorly put-together one I've seen; I'd like to keep what remains of my faith in people.

...Says the one who would rather attribute this all to stupidity in the first place.

There's a difference between stupidity and incompetent malice.

Fair enough. I think I'd rather deal with the latter, though. They tend to have more conviction, sure, but if their plans get off the ground, at least they're easy to crash.

Oh, you'll find no argument about that here, actually; I've met some incredibly determined stupid people in my time, and there's nothing quite as frustrating as otherwise competent people moving in the stupidest direction possible.

At least even stupid people can make good decisions by fluke, or serve as an example for a better leader. Stupidity can even be fixed, given time and effort. Plus it's good for diffusing a situation.

Well, where I'm from, stupidity was more likely to get you killed than anything. The idea of reforming the idiots wasn't really an option; it often came down to letting them die and learning from their mistakes.

So I won't deny that stupid people are...useful, in their own way, as horrible as that sounds. They're just far more difficult to handle should they manage to be some sort of horrible combination of stupid and competent.

Sounds like your reality was a bit rough. What do you think of the theory that we were brought here...for our own good, I guess you could say?

I can see where there might be some merit to that line of thinking, especially considering that some are deceased back in their world of origin; others have been brought here either just before a life-changing crisis (providing the possibility of avoiding it entirely) or just after said crisis has occurred (providing them an option to recover in a reasonably safe environment free of death or any real strife).

That said, however, people are often sent back to where they came from, with no memories of having been here in the first place. So that's a bit of a cruel theory, in the end.

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