001 // text; username: grollschwert

[hauntedsavior]

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.

Comments

[hauntedsavior]

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?

[frogfear]

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.

[hauntedsavior]

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.

[frogfear]

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.

[hauntedsavior]

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.

[frogfear]

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.

[hauntedsavior]

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.

[frogfear]

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.

[hauntedsavior]

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.

[frogfear]

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.

[hauntedsavior]

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.

[frogfear]

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.

[hauntedsavior]

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.

[frogfear]

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.