034. [Text]

[explosivecombat]

It's been explained to me before by a few people here that alternate worlds are simply a reality for them - that there are dimensions that supposedly run parallel to theirs, coexisting alongside them but not touching or crossing over at all, save by methods that are exceedingly difficult to master and control. Some of the Pokédex entries here seem to support this notion as well - there are mentions of things being able to tear open portals to parallel worlds and the like.

It's also come to my attention that a large amount of people here seem to share the same home world, just with different variations that may or may not be incredibly minor - a school in one world where it doesn't exist in another, a landmark that's slightly different, a renamed city, an event in history changing things ever-so-slightly such that one group of people exists or doesn't. It's not dissimilar to my own world's situation, when it's put that way - what happened with us is exactly that latter instance, actually, it's just that something diverged early on and as such things played out differently. However, it wasn't enough of a split to mean that some of us - myself, people I know, people I don't - don't exist in that other version of my world; we do, it's just that our lives and circumstances are different to account for the change.

If all of the above is true, then it makes me question - it's possible that all of our worlds are connected like that, even those that are drastically different, isn't it? If all worlds run parallel to one another, obviously no two are the same; there's been some sort of change that would warrant the separation in the first place. So if all worlds are variations on each other, those variations also have variations; isn't it possible that those worlds containing countries and races and abilities and practices that you've never heard of or dreamed possible are just further out from the source? Those are the worlds that have been filtered through more and more alternate scenarios until that particular set of circumstances was created.

Although if that's the case, then logically speaking, there should be one master world at the root of all of it - something that we can trace all of existence back to. I'm not saying that would be possible now, since for all we know that world is long dead; just the same, perhaps that world is what chooses us - what decides that we're the fortunate ones, the ones that have withstood the general test of being run through multiple scenarios and circumstances and not been killed or weeded out in the process.

It really is rude of me to make people sit through all of this, but it's something I've given a lot of thought to in the past, and it's been coming up time and again recently, so I thought I would revisit it. I've always found the notion that we were all born because some higher power decided we, specifically, needed to exist to fulfill a certain role in life to be farfetched and hackneyed; in my experience, God doesn't care what you do with yourself, as long as you're not upsetting the natural balance of the world. But I've always maintained that those who change the world have been chosen by the world in some way or another.

Who knows? What with proof that alternate worlds like this exist, maybe I'm right.

Comments

[Text]

[rocketralph]

_{[Forgive the caps. They're just easier for King Kong here to see on such a tiny screen.]}

WE'RE ALL IN THE SAME ARCADE PAL

[explosivecombat]

So you keep telling me; think of it as different versions and upgrades, if it makes you feel better.

[...GAMES HAVE THOSE, RIGHT? HE'S STILL KIND OF NOT GOOD WITH THE TECHNOLOGY THING BUT HE'S PICKED UP...SOME OF IT...]

[rocketralph]

_{[Ralph's not so sure about upgrades...he's heard of repairs, sure. The Xerox Sheet of Doom was usually a bad omen but nothing seemed to change in the games it cast its shadow over. Unless...]}

NEWER VERSIONS SURE

BUT THE OLD ONES TEND TO GET TOSSED OUT ONCE THEY BREAK DOWN

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[ossifragant]

Somehow I feel like our past discussions have helped inspire this.

I agree with you entirely, for what it's worth and I've said as much before. It makes me wonder what this original world must have been like.

A world that decides who the important ones are... I like the sound of that. It's a vicious form of natural selection.

[explosivecombat]

They did, in part - it was discussion with you and with an acquaintance of mine, actually. It's given me a fair amount to think about lately.

Though if we're going to assume that the world's choice is natural selection at work, the fact that there are at least two different iterations of myself that exist indicates that I'm one of those that pass its evaluation; while I'm flattered at that particular implication, I hope you won't mind if I consider the version that exists in your world to be an error that was removed from the equation far earlier than I ever was.

[dead philosophers]

[doitrockapella]

Well, well. Should I start calling you "Socrates", instead?

[explosivecombat]

I'm afraid the comparison is a little lost on me.

[cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

I'm slightly familiar with such parallel worlds with only minor differences, so the concept of such things isn't entirely foreign to me, but the idea of everything stemming from a single world is an interesting idea. But I imagine finding such a thing, if it exists, would be incredibly difficult.

[So what Cobra got from this is that he should find that one source world, conquer it, and that means he'll rule every single world. Or something to that effect. But at least he had the good sense not to type that out and send it.]</small

[explosivecombat]

[...don't worry, Kimblee's already suspecting that is exactly where this is going, and while he's fairly sure that logic doesn't quite work that way, he'd be almost disappointed if Cobra approached this otherwise.]

If such a thing existed in the first place, it also begs the question of whether it still exists or not; it's possible that source world runs alongside our own, time-wise, but it's also possible that it's seen its own existence through to completion - that something destroyed it, or perhaps it destroyed itself because humanity has a way of nearly doing that every so often. Perhaps it finally succeeded one day.

[solas_ion]

Never thought of it that way, with the whole idea of a source world and whatever. Kind of figured all our worlds had to be connected one way or another, though--that would make dragging us all here easier, wouldn't it?

I never really held much value in the idea of fate, though. Freak chance and amazing coincidence, sure. Maybe now and again some things were meant to happen, but the idea that everybody's existence has a specific purpose and all that shit always sounded ridiculous to me.

[explosivecombat]

I don't know if I'd say that everyone's existence has a specific purpose, especially given all the obvious daily evidence that some people really are completely useless in the scheme of things.

[KIMBLEE.]

However, in several worlds, no matter how divergent otherwise, there are some things that remain the same. Parallels exist between dimensions - some of them are languages, some are countries, and some happen to be people. Countries and languages are understandable, given that such things are firmly established and would take a good amount more to be undone by one change or another. But the odds of the same people populating these worlds and fulfilling the same roles in each one is a far more difficult to explain, given how easy it is to erase a single human being from existence.

Basically, it's more understandable to me to think that Japan and England and Russia would exist between worlds than it is to believe that Churchill and Socrates and da Vinci would exist and fulfill the same purpose in multiple worlds - not a variant on them, but those specific people, doing those specific things. That's what makes me think that some are chosen by the world, while others are not.

[ text ]

[imthe_shit]

They don't have to sit down and read it. They could have seen the wall of text and went to do something else. It was tempting, but I skimmed it.

I know there are alternate worlds, and hell, maybe we're all part of the same world, just different variations. It's weird, but it's not impossible, since we're in the most impossible place.

But being chosen by the world in order to change it? Bull. You're talking about fate and destiny and I don't care about any of that. People aren't chosen out of some magical decision; it's because of their experiences, their pasts, their relationships; everything culminates into the choice. The only reason I, or any of my allies have been chosen has been because of some asshole's ulterior motives.

That's it. There was no decision from the world.

Re: [ text ]

[explosivecombat]

I don't know that I would call it fate, exactly, since fate implies that everything is fixed and cannot be changed; I've always been a firm believer in the strength of human will and in forming one's ideologies in any way that one sees fit, and freedom of choice is something I consider to be vital to the human condition. Believing in fate, destiny or other sorts of pure predetermination strips humanity of that essence; I don't believe that the world can force you, as a person, to do anything any more than I could, and for all intents and purposes I'm words on a screen talking at you.

[TEXT - LOCKED]

[sadisticwarfare]

[...So this is what's been bothering Kimblee for the past few days. Archer studies the wall of text for a bit before finally sighing, dragging his hands down his face, and replying. As much as he'd like to avoid talking about the differences between their worlds (that's something he's been doing a lot lately with Greed of all people), Kimblee clearly has something on his mind that he needs to discuss.]

Why are you thinking about all this again?

[TEXT - LOCKED]

[explosivecombat]

Is there a reason that I shouldn't be?

[text]

[beholdmydemons]

[....There's a lot of whirling thoughts here, and an insistent feeling like someone's been punching his gut like a sandbag, so let's just simplify it down to:]

I've traveled between such alternate worlds.

[boy oh fucking boy.]

[explosivecombat]

[Oh. Hello again.]

Have you, now?

[Text]

[babel_hacker]

I know about different and parallel worlds, but the idea that there's the original world as the root of everything is new to me.

But I don't really like the idea of fate or being chosen by a higher being. I'm more of a supporter for picking our own path in life, whether it cause bigger changes or smaller ones.

[Text]

[explosivecombat]

From what I understand, in my own world the "higher being" doesn't particularly care what humanity does with itself. As long as no one deliberately tries to defy natural law - things like physics and basic chemistry and rules of creation, things that are universal constants that cannot be broken - then that higher being will let us do as we see fit. What matters to him is that we experience life in any way we choose, and while we won't be helped, we won't be hindered, either. He personally believes in free will at its finest, really.

I don't think that what I'm discussing is so much a matter of "fate" as it is the fact that certain people have influenced several worlds - it's not someone similar to an individual just fulfilling the same role, it's supposedly the same person. Many worlds have Socrates and Da Vinci explicitly doing the exact same thing despite the other divergences between them, for example.

Some people are constants, while some are not. I'd imagine there has to be a reason for that.

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[tentacletrainer]

I wouldn't doubt that in the slightest, honestly. In my experience, our universe has always existed outside of and beside of multiple other universes both similar and vastly different to ours, so I don't see why it couldn't be that everyone here also exists in such a universe beside our own. This world could even be it's own universe as well, existing independently from ours until something changed and began tapping into our worlds, right?

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[explosivecombat]

I don't see why not; if anything, it makes the most sense to me out of any other theories I've entertained.

You have a good amount of experience with things like that, then? Forgive me for asking, but since coming here I've held a good amount of fascination with other worlds and how they work.

[text]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Blake's about to delete the long-ass message and toss the phone on the couch when a couple words jump out at him. Alternate worlds.

People keep talking about that shit. Makes him...maybe curious isn't the word.]

The real world, Crazy Bullshit Island, and all these other fucked up planets where all of you come from, those I can believe in.

But do you really think there's a bunch of magic clones of yourself out there?

[text]

[explosivecombat]

I don't know if I would call them magical, but I don't see why not.

In your opinion, what makes that idea harder to believe than the thought of other worlds?

[islandshore]

I don't know about difficult. My friend Ven traveled between worlds by riding on a hover board, and it never sounded like he had too much trouble with it. Pretty sure Sora rode around on some kind of rocket, but I can't really give a firsthand account. Kinda hard when I'm behind on the times.

But I'd be lying if I didn't wonder about stuff like this every now and then. The fact that people can pop in and out of this place with or without memories makes me think that there could be millions of identical worlds out there. Why else would some people leave, come back as a blank slate, then come back again with an older set of memories? I'd almost argue that the differences between worlds could be as simple as what you ate for breakfast one morning... but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

As far as a master world goes... it's a tough call. Some worlds behave so differently that it'd be almost impossible to tie them together. Take this place, for example. We've got endless background music and impassable ledges. Then you get worlds with talking ponies, worlds made up of a ton of different worlds scattered across the same sky... Do you really think it's possible to connect them?

[explosivecombat]

I don't see why it wouldn't be. Bear in mind that simply because we can't see the connections doesn't mean they never existed - it's possible that one world (or perhaps several worlds) in between were destroyed by something or other, or for whatever reason simply ceased to exist. Humanity, or whatever the dominant species that existed there was, may have destroyed itself; for a myriad reason, the world may have been rendered insensate. But that world would have variations on itself, some of which may have survived, and evolved beyond that which would be recognizable immediately without tracing the link back.

To use your own example, several of the animals here can communicate with us via telepathic brainwaves, and some of them can be taught to utter human speech; many of them are more intelligent than most people. With that in mind, does this world being connected to a world with speaking sentient ponies sound that impossible?