explosivecombat | 028. [Text]

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

[Are you casting doubt on Blake's impeccable rationality? Bite your tongue, sir.]

Sure, maybe there's people from a lot of different places, all with their own crazy-ass hometown. That doesn't mean any of them are running around with goddamn evil twins.

Perhaps not, but it implies the possibility of it.

No it fucking doesn't. There may be a lot of weird shit going on in other places, but what happened in the real world is what happened. No changing it.

Meaning that you're operating under the assumption that your world is the "real world", correct?

Course it is, but right now that doesn't even matter. You can have one of someplace, but a double is just stupid. What, you think there's another one of you running around with a goatee, making the one mistake you didn't?

No.

But I've heard about someone in an alternate world that has a very similar backstory and incredibly similar tendencies. Someone who shares my incredibly uncommon name, with the exact same pronunciation, whose country of origin is the same as mine - a country that, unlike yours, seems to be unique to a very specific set of people who are brought here, as no one that isn't from that country has never even heard of it.

Someone I had never met before coming here knew some very private details about me that I've never told anyone - things I've never even spoken aloud. Someone from that same country. And he said that this other version of me told him.

[Blake is pacing back and forth. It keeps him from hitting anything but doesn't have a good effect on his typing.]

Oh yeah/? What was diferent about this oyher you?

[...goodness, what happened to your spelling.]

The way he went about doing things in general.

Things you don't seem to believe in, regarding what I told you about my unit in the military.

you mean abouy you being in magic special ops?

Somebody was fucking wth you. [Blake's thumbs are jabbing the keys with more force than it really needs.] They found out this other shit somehow and tehy were screwing around.

Look, its like if you're living in a country out in the midle of nowhere. Then one day suddenly you find out there's a whole shitload of other countries around. That means there's a bunch of new crap you didn't know about. It doesn't mean there can be somebody else living out there who's you.

Are you trying to convince me of all this, or are you trying to force it to make sense for your sake?

It has to mkae sense. Otherwise it's bullshit. This guy who says he's you, what if he goes out nd bombs a train or somehting? Does that make you responsible? You can't be trying to tell me that somebthing somebody ekse does can be your fault.

Do I really seem that self-flagellating to you?

Whatever this alternate version of me does, it's none of my business, nor is it any of my concern. Quite frankly, as long as it's not affecting my world's version of events - which, I can safely say, it won't - then it matters very little to me. If he chooses to blow up a train, then so be it.

I wasn't talking about

[Out of habit, his thumb hits SEND instead of delete. Doesn't matter, he ignores it and keeps going.]

Say he does. Then, say somebody from where he's from comes along and starts blaming you.

That sounds like a bit of a personal problem, doesn't it?

I'm fairly sure there are enough physical differences for it to be a moot point anyway; from what I'm told, he looks much younger than I do, among other things.

[He hasn't even been told about that ungodly mullet, but still.]

It's all hypothetical, since the whole thing's bullshit, but you're the one who brought it up, so think it through.

If there's one, there could be more, right? Say there's one who looks exactly like you.

[Blake has stopped pacing.]

Say he did something real stupid, and now you're getting the blame. What're you supposed to do about that?

Mm. You say that I brought it up, and you say that such things are nothing more than the ramblings of the deranged - but you're the one being insufferably paranoid. I've mentioned the one circumstance that I know to exist; you're the one throwing complications into it.

Is there something in your life that you wouldn't want to have to answer for, if you'd made a different choice somewhere along the line? Or are you concerned about another lifetime in which someone might have to answer for something you've done?

It's a what-if kinda situation, right? It's not paranoid to think out how fucked up it could get.

[That hits way too close to home. Blake's jaw tightens up and his thumbs jab fast.]

None of your damn business.

Point is, is this other guy you or not?

Not really, no. It's a specific situation that's already happened, as I've been telling you from the beginning; are you done trying to assert yourself?

[Blake sighs heavily. Fuck, but he's tired. His sleep was bad enough without dreaming about being locked up in a little cell, looking out a barred window to watch Emily and her Gallade walking off towards something dark and sharp grabbing for them, something they couldn't see, and no matter how much he yelled they didn't hear.]

[Weren't you supposed to forget this shit when you woke up?]

Yeah. I'm done.

[He knows what's true. That's what matters. Right?]

[After a minute, he adds]

So whatever happened to your evil twin?

He died. From what I understand, he was killed in battle.

Huh. How bout that. So there's just a dead one of you, floating out there somewhere. You really believe it?

There was a lady before talking about this crap. Alternate universes. Something out of a goddamn comic book.

Whether I believe it or not isn't really important, I think; it's an interesting thing to consider, anyway.

And according to you there are probably a lot of dead versions of me out there, right?

Interesting. That's one fucking word for it. Enough shit goes wrong in reality. What's the point of thinking up new worlds where it's worse?

Whaddya mean, according to me? But yeah, if there's a million of these damn things, there must be plenty where you end up dead. Human bomb squad must be a job with a lot of turnover.

Well, you brought up the possibility that there could be multiple; I was really just referring to the one. But it's something of a moot point, I suppose.

There's a philosophical theory out there that claims that all things are possible, if the circumstances align just right - every possible outcome and iteration of the world and our fates is simultaneously happening, this just happens to be the one that we're experiencing. So theoretically speaking, there are plenty of realities in which you were never born, but then, there's at least one reality in which you're God.

I'll let you decide whether that's good or terrifying for your creations, whatever they may be.

[Blake's brows furrow. It takes him a minute to work through that. He's not your real philosophical sort.]

[He eventually winnows out the important part. In a way, going full-out with the crazy makes it more comfortable. It mutes the horrible suspicion that any of it could be true.]

The there's a couple where I'm the devil, right?

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