deernet | 001 // text; username: grollschwert

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001 // text; username: grollschwert

What's up.
Are we doing introductions now? I guess we're doing introductions.
Name's Anna. Professional city defender and mostly robot girl.
Coming here from a place called Recolle that I'm pretty sure no one here knows about, which is cool.

Never been much for stuff like this, so, like, I don't know.
Anyone needs a katana at their side, look me up. I'm pretty damn good at it.
I might not know what's going on here, but far as I'm concerned, this is where I live now and it makes sense for everyone if I actually try to keep it safe.

And since I'm in full spaghetti at the wall mode right now, lemme just throw out some words, see if it triggers anything for any of you guys.
Zee Carlisle. Clarence Vanderweele. Layers of reality. Retrospec.
The Geteilts.
Nothing?
Yeah, didn't think so.

Anyway, yeah, flag me down if you see me on the streets and need some protection or whatever. I'm five ten and I only have one eye. I'm hard to miss.

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Nice meeting you, Willow. I'd be impressed if anyone really knows what's going on in here, since it's from, like, the year ten thousand.
It's complicated. Do me a solid and don't end up inheriting someone else's soul.

Yeah, that might complicate things a little. It was 2002 for me before I came to Deerington.

I have no immediate plans for soul-inheriting. I've got my own already, thanks.

Well, hopefully it's only a risk for other people who come from Recolle. And it shouldn't be one anymore at all, now that the app isn't a thing.
Another Deerington refugee, huh? How many of you made it out of that dream or whatever and ended up here?
Is that basically the whole town except for me?

Yeah, let's hope so. Wait. There was an app for that?

I'm not sure how many here are from Deerington exactly. It looks like a lot of us are, but I've run into a few people I've never met before too, so you can't be the only one who didn't come from the dream.

There was for me and everyone else in the city who got pulled into it.
Run by the Retrospec company. It was basically just an easy way to help our souls collide and be reborn as one.
By the time it all ended, there was only one person left running the app, and I worked for him.
And we stopped the evil plot to ruin everyone left in the city, and we saved Recolle, and now... I'm here, I guess.
Honestly, kind of glad everything I went through before wasn't just a dream, but, well. Just 'cause something happens in a dream doesn't mean it's not real.

That sounds pretty intense. In 2002 there's nowhere near that level of technology, but I guess it's not so surprising that things went that far? Even the Omnis here are super advanced compared to what we had.

I'm not sure if this place is just pulling people in from where it can, or if it's a conscious decision to come here for everyone. I know at least some of the people I knew from Deerington chose to come here instead.

You're right about dreams, though. Deerington was a dream, but it was also real for all of us.

Ha. Yeah, I remember tech in 2002. That was what, like, first-gen iPod and stuff? Never even made it to smartphones.
This must be blowing your mind. But like, okay, can I just say?
And I know I'm not saying anything new with this, but when did we decide to get rid of that little hole you could hang charms from?
Whoever made that call should be shot out of a cannon.

Anyway. Getting sidetracked. Point is, I guess I can see people making the choice to come here, especially if they feel guilty about making the wrong choices leading up to it.
Kind of like they have to make it right. Like they owe it to the child they think they couldn't save.
I don't know. That's a little grim even for me, though.

The Omnis aren't so bad. I mean, they're still an upgrade from the Fluids we had in Deerington, though. Those ones were a bit more of a shock - I think I tried just about everything I could with it short of totally taking it apart and putting it back together.

Both could 100% be improved with little charms, though!

I think some people came here so they could leave their old worlds behind - I don't know if that's any less grim or not, though. The idea that someone's world could be so bad that the unknown can only be better. But hey, if people are happy here then it can't be all bad, right?

Yeah, I guess you're right, as long as it's actual happiness.
And not, like, the town trying to make you forget bad things so you just sit around feeling complacent.
I forget if Recolle ever did that to me, but I wouldn't put it past that place. The big bad loved fucking with people while he bashed his fists against the walls of reality.
If people are signing themselves up for more of the same here, they must have been going through some real shit back home.

Or maybe they changed enough that home wasn't home to them anymore.
Guess we'll never know.
Or, I mean, I'll never know. Obviously you have a pretty good idea of why you're here.

Yeah, I haven't forgot my mistakes. I mean, when I first turned back here, things were kind of foggy, but I think that was just too much time in the water. It cleared up pretty quick after I started running into people I knew. I guess if Recolle was screwing with people's memories, there's a good chance you wouldn't remember it even now, huh?

I'm sure there's lots of reasons why people didn't go home. Whether it's because this could be better than wherever home used to be, or because it just didn't feel like home any more, or they decided they had stronger attachments to the people they met here. I mean, I know why I'm here. I came close to going back, but I ended up changing my mind at pretty much the last minute possible.

A lot of the stuff is burned in there pretty hard, but there was... I don't know.
Two weird months where it felt like I was dissociating the whole time. It was cool.
Maybe it'll come back into focus if I run into anyone else who was stuck in there with me.

That's a hell of a choice to make. Torn between going back home where you've got everyone who knows you or sticking around here with all the new people who have been through hell with you.
Not sure if I envy you guys who had to make that kind of choice.
Never got that chance myself, but I don't know how it'd break if I were in your place.
Mind if I ask what kept you around?

It might just come back with time too. I don't know. I hope it does for you. Or maybe it's just better to be able to put it behind you.

There were a lot of reasons I chose to come here. A lot of the ones we already kind of talked about - I had a life, and friends in Deerington I didn't want to leave. Home stopped feeling so much like home after being in the dream for... I was there for, like seven months. It felt longer, though. And when I figured out there was already another version of me at home, doing all the me things that needed to be done, I figured this is where I could do the most good.

Not totally sure if I would have made the same choice if I knew about the squid thing to be honest, though. That was definitely not in any of the brochures.

Yeah, the squid thing is one of the weirder ways I've made my introduction somewhere.
Usually it's more "you're too young to drink at this bar" or "ma'am, this is a Wendy's".
There was still another version of you at home, though? That's interesting.
I figured you'd still be asleep the whole time, but life just... went on without you, huh?
Or at least the you that you are.
Interesting. Don't know if I like that.
But it does make the question of whether to stay or go a lot easier, I guess.

Yeah. I used to like the beach, but I think now it's going to be a long time before I want to get back in the water again, or hang out near the ocean.

That's what I was told - 'there's still a version of you going on strong back home.' Kind of weird to think about in some ways, but it's also not the first time I've seen something like this. I met another me once, but she was a vampire, and from another version of my world. It's a long story.

Oh, word?
We had some vampire alternate universe versions of people for a little bit in Recolle.
Don't think they were a fan of it, but whoever organized it was... like, think Bram Stoker and Nosferatu and shit.
No new fancy vampires that are designed to be sexy. Just real bloodsuckers. Much less chill.
I guess it's kind of the same thing -- those other universes probably went on living somewhere.

I really try not to think about it too much. Definitely don't have the head for it.

Yeah? That sounds pretty intense. We have them in my regular world too, but the one the other me was from was like vampire apocalypse world where they had all really taken over the town, going by what she said.

The idea of other universes is kind of a lot. I know of some physics theories that deal with things like that, but I don't know a whole lot about it.

I guess this place is proof enough that other realities really do exist, though. Even for people who haven't already run right up against them like you have.
If we could ever make it back to the "real" world, whatever that means anymore, we could knock some really important scientists right on their asses.
Too bad the universe doesn't run on the rule of what would be really, really funny.

Yeah. I had a friend at home who knew a lot more about them than I do. She said there were basically as many realities as you could imagine. Even one just like our regular world, but just without shrimp.

Hey, yeah. If we could get back to our worlds, we could become Nobel Prize winners, I bet. You know. If anyone believed us.

Yeah, that was always the problem in Recolle.
Nobody believed anyone who wasn't on the app.
We couldn't talk to anyone who didn't already know the true nature of reality or everyone just kind of treated us like we were crazy.
The only people we had were ourselves. And let me tell you, us Recolle kids were not great mental health buddies.

That sounds really awful. I'm sorry you guys weren't believed when you were telling the truth. It must've made it a lot harder to deal with everything that was happening there.

At least, if nothing else, you can probably tell just about anyone here anything you saw back there and they'll know you're telling the truth - I mean, we've all seen some pretty strange things in Deerington too.

Ha, yeah. That's definitely something that makes it easier.
We're in a new hell, but most of us at least know the framework by now.
And... well, nobody really knows yet, I guess, but I have to assume if someone just stops recognizing everyone and everything about how this place works, they won't stick around as normal people to remind everyone of what it used to be like.
They probably just go back to being a squid and squid off into the ocean.

Well, and you never know - maybe this place won't be so bad. It sounds like it has some upsides to Recolle, at least?

God, I hope you're wrong about that. I don't want to go back to being a squid again. I still sometimes feel like I have not enough arms after the last time.

Well, if there's one thing Recolle did teach me, it's how to stay on your toes.
No matter how many of them you have.
Wouldn't be surprised if we ran into some super cool body transformation bullshit at some point.
So I guess keep an eye on your tentacles.

Yeah, I think Deerington did the same thing to most of us.

I just got done being a squid, I think I've had enough weird body transformations for a bit personally.

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