5. [video]

[pompous_today]

Who: Simon Tam and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: N/A
When: August 13th

I have a rather strange question. Twice now, people have arrived here who look nearly identical to people I knew back home- and yet, they are clearly not those people. They are close in looks, but in personality... not so much.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is it just something I should chalk up to alternate universes and time travel? It's rather unsettling, to tell the truth...

Comments

[video]

[geonomy]

[Now. Clay could be truthful and talk about how there are TV shows on his world with radically different characters that are played by the same actor, and how that's probably why Simon's seeing these familiar-yet-not people.

But what would that cause? Would it really be worth saying something like that? Besides, Clay has another theory in mind, one that could work well with introducing to people. So, he decides to go with that instead.]

I can't say it's happened to me, but I think I understand. What do you think about it being related to the multiverse theory? In one reality, one of those persons you're talking about is the one you know. And yet in another one, where the branches of reality went in an entirely different direction, that person isn't the one you know at all. Their body structure could be the same, but they grew up in different circumstances, different worlds, maybe even different parents.

So, basically, alternate universes?

[iamawaited]

There's someone on my ship like that. Looks like-- like someone from back home.

[Not actually in the way Simon means. He has yet to see anyone truly identical. It's uncanny how close Syeira and Capable are, though.]

[touchofrogue]

Does your universe have the song, 'It's a small world after all?'

[pompous_today]

[Simon chuckled.]

Must be from long before my time, but we do still have such a saying.

[pompous_today]

It's very strange to experience, isn't it? They seem like perfectly-nice people, just... not my people, if that makes sense.

[video]

[pompous_today]

That could make sense, yes- or they could be distantly related somehow. But the problem with that theory is I know one of them, at least, is from hundreds of years before my time- I came from 2517, she was from 2009.

[iamawaited]

It's not the same.

Threw me real good for a minute, though.

[pompous_today]

Agreed. Hearing the same voice, seeing the same face... but realizing as soon as they talk that it's not them. I actually work closely with one of them, so I am starting to get used to it, but I think I will still be startled every now and then.

[goldenglasses]

Could it be alternate realities!? I read about that in a book once, but the book wasn't real. Then again, a lot of things I didn't think were real are becoming a bit more real these days.

[touchofrogue]

Then just think about how that applies to the multi-universe.

[Mysteries of the universe...]

[iamawaited]

Were you...

Was the other person important?

[pompous_today]

Yes. My colleague bears a very striking resemblance to my girlfriend, to be specific.

[pompous_today]

So it may be quite likely to happen again, then. I would not be surprised if Atroma found it amusing and did it on purpose.

[pompous_today]

That is the only explanation I can think of- or perhaps they are distantly related somehow. Except... they're very, very close in looks. Closer to twins, rather than siblings or family members.

[touchofrogue]

[...well, that was one way of lookin' at it.]

If you wanna give them that much credit, sure. You're right, though. No reason why it won't happen again.

[goldenglasses]

Not that all twins have to look or act like each other. [It's an almost automated response. He hasn't had good experiences when it comes to twins and it's left a bad taste in his mouth.]

But I understand what you mean. They don't have any of the same memories or personalities then? I really can't say I've experience things like that before.

[video]

[geonomy]

Wooow, that's pretty far apart. [Oh, Firefly. You and your future thing.] It could still apply, though! With that theory, a person who was born at one time in another world could've been born at another time in a completely different one. I'd have to look into it more, but that's my guess, at least.

[iamawaited]

[That word isn't lost to Nux's world, but it's definitely uncommon -- especially among War Boys who rarely so much as see anyone that isn't also a War Boy. He blinks, then nods, scarred lips pursing in thought.]

Mine was, too. Important.

[Was Capable a girlfriend? He's not sure how to qualify that.]

[pompous_today]

[Simon smiled.]

Indeed. But yes, that's right- different occupations, different memories, having lived in different places. I am not even from Earth at all, but I know one of them- my colleague Dr. Keller- is.

[video]

[pompous_today]

It's enough to make one's head spin, really. I suppose that is possible, though- or something like reincarnation. Or it could just be random genetic chance, as improbable as that is.

[pompous_today]

I have to wonder, then, if it is chance or Atroma deliberately bringing them here.

[pompous_today]

I would not put anything past them, to be honest. Of course, to be fair, I am not sure they do have that much control over who gets brought here.

[touchofrogue]

[...that was kind of what she just said, wasn't it? As a result, Rogue's tone is dry.]

Glad ya see it that way.

[iamawaited]

Why would it want to make us homesick?

[Because Syeira seems perfectly nice and everything, but he misses Capable every time he looks over and realizes it's not her red hair in the corner of his eye.]

[pompous_today]

[Simon smiled, taking the jibe.]

As long as we are both on the same page.