exeggutorhead | 61st Transformation [text]

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61st Transformation [text]

So we're all from different worlds, right? Whole planets full of millions of people.

So what are the odds that people who know each other show up all the time? They've got to be astronomical, but we can almost EXPECT it to happen.

I'm from one of those worlds that isn't one with Europe and America and all that. And almost everyone who's ever shown up and heard of my country? Either I've known them or someone else here has. And every single one of them has been from the same time period of a few years. Nobody I only knew from, say, a hundred years ago ever shows up.

[Random Joe Notinvolved from Amestris should by all rights appear so why doesn't that happen? This is something he thinks about on and off, but after his conversation with Jimmy the other day, it's itching at his mind again.]

Has anyone else noticed something like this?

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[France is at a work, but, dang, it's a slow day.]

I have had people come from much further back than a hundred years. Romano and Spain, for example. But I do seem to be very much in the minority for that.

It's also interesting that people don't seem to come from the future of their worlds. At least, I don't recall an example of anyone who is more than a handful of years ahead of their world cohort.

This discussion is always best over a bottle of good wine. Want me to bring one home in a couple of hours?

Hm, yeah there is that for you. But Greed and I, or any of the homunculi from that other Amestris, could have come from any time over the centuries. But it's always been those few years. It's WEIRD.

People come from a long way in the past in your world, like Miguel and Tulio did. But not from mine. I wonder if there's anything to that or if it's just a frustrating coincidence.

...I'll have to ask people about the future thing, too.

[This is all RIDICULOUS.]

yes wine is starting to sound really good

I'll bring snacks, too. I'll message you when I leave work.

[When his shift ends, France packs up a bottle of one of the red wines he finds dependably passable and bags a tray of almonds and cashews. On his way out, he texts:]

Have the things. Are you home?

Yeah, I'm here.

[When France gets home, he'll be sitting on the couch in the living room, tossing Poke-treats for his Ariados to catch.]

[When France opens the door and comes into the living room, he has a brief moment of self-awareness. It is not the fact there is a spider the size of a large dog catching treats like a normal, everyday pet that makes him pause. Rather, it's the fact he's not surprised nor alarmed.]

[He sets his bag down and takes out the wine and bag of nuts with a slightly gob-smacked expression playing over his face.]

Out of curiosity, what brought on your post today?

[Envy looks up and grins when he sees France, scooting over to make room on the couch. Bunch, sensing that bored treat-tossing time is over, scuttles up onto the couch to curl up on Envy's other side like a good lap-spider.]

[Envy was also prepared, and gestures at the pair of wineglasses already out on the coffee table.]

I was talking with one of the new people a few days ago. I realized that since I didn't recognize him, I was just assuming that he'd never have heard of Amestris. It's something I wonder about sometimes, and this time I figured I'd ask.

[Don't think he didn't notice that gobsmacked expression, though. He tilts his head.]

Having a revelation of your own?

[France uncorks the wine bottle and pours them both full glasses. He settles himself on the couch, holding out Envy's for him to take.]

Had he heard of Amestris?

[His lips quirk a little as he takes a sip from his own glass before answering.]

I just had the thought that I once would have found a spider of Bunch's size to be quite alarming. Then again, I probably still would if it wasn't Bunch.

[Envy takes the offered glass, taking a long sip of it.]

No, he hadn't. He asked if it was European, which it...might technically be after all, but I did not feel like bringing the damn Gate into the discussion too.

[He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. But then his own mouth quirks in amusement.]

Ha, I think most of us would have before coming here. My world has chimeras, but they're not usually so friendly.

[Bunch, hearing his name and the compliments, makes a friendly chittering sound and waves the tips of his two front legs. Yes! He's Bunch! He's a good Pokemon!]

[France makes a thoughtful noise, swirling the red in his glass lazily. It has a slightly sharp aroma, but there's a subtle sweetness that France finds balances this one out.]

[When he speaks, it's a little slower than his usual diction, turning over his words as he voices them.]

There's a part of me that still has a difficult time with the knowledge that there are different worlds. Perhaps even different universes all together. It's not that I don't have the concept back home, but it's a fairly recent concept and rather philosophical. One thing that's always stuck in my head about the concept, though, is all the different universes are supposed to be different, which implies there's something about them that makes them unique from all the other possibilities. This is certainly truth if we assume the number of possible worlds and universes is infinite.

[France squints and takes a sip of wine. He sets the glass on the table and picks out one of the cashews. He motions vaguely with it.]

For my world, the difference from others might be the fact I and those like me exist. For you, it might be the structure of your countries and the manner in and by which you exist.

[He pops the cashew into his mouth, turning to fully face Envy as he does to smile and shrug ruefully as he chews and swallows.]

We can't be sure, of course. I mean, I used to think me being here meant I was dead.

[Which hadn't actually been disproven in France's opinion, despite what China had told him. And there are people who have come to this world who certainly are dead in theirs, so there's that, too.]

Edited 2015-01-23 16:24 (UTC)

It's mostly the same for me, except that everyone from my world or from the previous world I visited came from seventeen years ago. I'll be the first to say it was a memorable year, but that's still no explanation.

[After what France mentioned about people from the future, this is very relevant!]

So you're from a world without Europe in it, too?

[Yes this is how he's going to classify Earth.]

Someone else mentioned that people don't seem to come from too far in the future from everyone else they know...did you show up here from that time, or have one of those comas?

I am. I'd never heard of it before I arrived here.

[And yet his world is also called Earth. Because.]

I've never fallen asleep like that. When I first arrived, past friends from that other world were already present. Then others arrived, and friends from home after that... All from the same year, and all long gone.

[... Huh. That's interesting.]

Maybe whatever draws us here is interested in more recent history.

... Also, you're over a hundred years old?

Only recent history from a few worlds?

I've known people from that Europe place who were from 1518, and people from it who were from 2010.

Are you from somewhere that has Europe?

[Oh and there's that question, but Envy's given up on caring about that being a secret.]

Yeah, almost 400. No idea what the exact year is.

I'm from Japan in 2009, so that's close. And yes, Europe definitely exists.

[... Oh. Well then.]

You must be bored. I imagine you've seen quite a lot.

Just wondering. People from worlds where it doesn't tend to be the weird ones for things like this. So, is anyone else you know here?

I've seen all kinds of things, but I keep myself entertained well enough. Progress is always happening, and there's always changing culture to learn.

And this place comes with all kinds of new experiences.

Yes. Apparently he's been here for four years.

That's true. Still, history tends to repeat itself, doesn't it? At least in my world.

And is he from a time before or after yours?

Of course history repeats itself, humanity never really changes no matter where you go. But that doesn't mean I have to get bored.

Roughly the same, as far as I can tell.

True. There's always more things to learn. It depends if you're the type to seek it out, but it seems like you are.

This is something I've questioned repeatedly myself; the closest answer I've found so far is that most here seem to have either been involved in a major event - affecting either the world in general or just a sufficient number of people, whatever "sufficient" may happen to be in their world's case (the criteria seems to be different based on the state of their world in general) - or, if they weren't involved, they at least witnessed it or stood to be affected by it in some way.

Basically, an impact was made and this world noticed.

See, that makes at least some sense.

It'd go along with what happened with that giraffe thing bringing us to fight those morons and their apocalypse a few months ago. I asked it why it chose who it did, and it said it chose who was needed, like it knew something. If that thing has anything to do with us being brought here, why not pick the kind of people who wind up involved in changing the world?

Still, though. I've been doing things that have an impact on Amestris for a long time, and so have others like me. Other worlds get people from all kinds of times brought in. But not us.

That's an entirely fair point - if the sole thing that warrants people being chosen is the capacity to change the world, I can think of at least two people who absolutely should be here but never have been, to my knowledge.

Perhaps it requires a specific sort of event to trigger it?

It's the same for me, I can think of people that ought to get brought in, but aren't. And other than Archer and the first time Greed appeared, people from my version of things have only started showing up in the past year.

But then again, their counterparts would. Come to think of it, we've never had both versions of one person before, have we? I know it's possible, I've seen it happen with other worlds a few times.

Specific events might be it, but then there's also those comas that move people's personal timelines forward after they're already here.

An interesting point. I've never much thought about it, all things considered. But it does seem rather beyond the realm of coincidence that we've all been brought here from within a few years of one another, and all have connections to one another.

Doesn't it?

The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. How do you do this all the time?

[HE'S JUST GETTING FRUSTRATED.]

I enjoy it. With that information alone, it's enough to assume we were brought here BECAUSE we share a connection. Scar mentioned something similar to me, once. Just wondering why we're here. We thought that maybe everyone who's here is here because our own worlds and lives did us ill.

[...goddamnit, why did you have to pick an interesting topic, Envy. Maybe if he keeps to text they won't bite each other's head off.]

It might be that to be able to be 'found' we have to meet some specific set of circumstances, whether through our lives or personality. The choice can't be random, but I can't figure out why the worlds similar to our parallel one are more represented.

[Oh, it's you....actually, this is good because come to think of it, he has a question for Alphonse specifically. He can at least be civil for through text for two seconds.]

Seems like almost everyone around here is from that one, or something like it. Amestris has been an outlier the whole time I've been here, even if there are sometimes a lot of us.

There's only been one person who I couldn't find out if anyone knew him. Do you know some snotty teenager named Russell?

Russell Tringham? He was impersonating Brother in Xenotime to get his research funded by the man who owned the town's land. I'm surprised you didn't know about that, honestly; they were trying to make the Stone with red water.

[...DAMN IT. So much for Russell being the missing Joe Notinvolved. Also, uh. Locking this.]

Oh THAT one. Yeah I heard about that, but if Lust told me what their names were I didn't exactly commit them to memory. I heard more about the fat moron doing the funding.

[And also all about how THE REAL ELRICS SHOWED UP AND SCREWED UP EVERYTHING.]

He didn't tell me his last name, either, he wasn't here long. Gone before Lust showed up.

He wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, no. I'm surprised we were what caused the whole thing to go under, honestly. Huh. Does that sort of thing happen often? People only being here for a few days or weeks?

It wasn't because of any competence on HIS part, I can tell you that.

It used to happen more, but there used to be a lot more people showing up in general. People would show up on the network for the first time to ask questions and then nobody'd ever hear from them again. Or they'd only last a month or so.

Interesting. I wonder why that sort of thing tapered off like that. It almost reminds me of a volatile reaction starting to stabilize.

I never noticed since hardly anyone from my world has been here. I did meet two people that was from almost 50 years in the future though. I only found out by accident that we were from the same place.

But one person I knew prior who arrived here was from 6 years in the past. It was... odd.

Hmm, weird. So what are the countries in your world called, then?

[Right now, he's assuming that Raikov is from one of those non-Earth outliers.]

Fifty years in the future is the biggest difference anyone's told me so far.

The USSR, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Seems to be the norm for a lot of people here too.

I didn't get to learn much about the future of my world when they were here. I... honestly didn't want to know.

I've always assumed that it had something to do with being connected to some sort of event... usually something astronomical, but as long as it's something that can connect a reasonably large group of people through varying levels of association, it seems to count. I have encountered people from the distant past here, but they're special cases that were involved in an event that also involved me.

Though, there are always people who were apparently just living out their daily lives before arriving here, which makes it... odd.

They tend to be more fascinating than most, though, so perhaps that's it?

People being connected by some big event has been the most likely answer so far. It's still got holes, but it's got less of them.

I know I've never met anyone here whose life has been completely BORING. That's got to have something to do with it.

Hah, that's true. There are some people I've encountered here who seem to be living ordinary lives by their standards, but there's still something I'd consider extraordinary about them.

...like the fact that they may be intelligent horses, for example.

youre a hundred years old?

_{[This is what she's going to take away from it, yeah.]}

[IT'S OKAY, MOLLY. You weren't the only one to notice that his age sure is a thing.]

Almost four hundred, actually.

_{[That's more than a thing. That's like ... a thing thing.]}

no way!!!

[Oh dang, EXTRA EXCLAMATION MARKS.]

no lies here. it's cool, isn't it?

[If he were better with kids or not from 1914 he might have said 'yes way', but sadly no.]

_{[yeah Envy you got the EXTRA EXCLAMATION MARKS. If you play your cards right maybe she won't think you're a jerk anymore!]}

yeah! is that your power?

one of them.

but my best power is that I can look like anyone I want, anytime. or I could before I came here, anyway.

_{[Small delay before she answers that one.]}

how man y do you have?

I had the ones that everything like me has. We're a lot stronger and faster than a human, we heal from injuries right away and don't get tired, and we don't age.

And then we've each got a special power that's just ours, and shapeshifting is mine.

[Don't worry Molly, he doesn't have a bunch of powers because he STEALS THEM FROM OTHER PEOPLE.]

_{[THAT WOULD MAKE HIM THE LITERAL WORST, so thank god for that.]}

i bet you really miss all that
if they dont work here i mean.

Yeah, the odds of that happening are astronomical and I wouldn't exactly expect it to happen. Or them to stay around if they show up, though my best friend is still here and she's been here before me.

[Still. It's not like she's taking it for granted, that Asami will stay here... That wouldn't be a good way of thinking in a place like this.]

We don't have Europe, America or Japan and those others in my world either. No one's ever heard of it either unless they're from there or heard about it from someone here. But Katara's been here from -- way before I was even born, or before my parents were born even. So that's different than your few years. I know some of her friends have been here, and I think a friend or two from my time back home might have been here for a little while too, but now it's only Asami and me. Not that I mind. At least I don't think someone like my first incarnation from 10 000 years ago has ever been here, but who knows, he might show up one day.

I've thought about this a few times

Pretty much come to the conclusion that however we all wind up here, it's not random

I couldn't tell you what the selection process is, but it's definitely not random

If it was random, there wouldn't be much point in wondering

but there's no way it could be.

yeah

there's SOME kind of pattern, no doubt about it.

The chances alone of my dad showing up, or heck even Henry, are ASTRONOMICALLY TINY compared to the chances of any of the other trillions of people living on my planet who aren't even remotely connected to me

and that's even without taking the time disparity stuff into account

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