Losing my memories? Why would I lose memories? You don't forget things when you fail to survive a reset. You die. Hence the failing to survive. And aside from talking to you on the network and in town, no, we haven't. Why? What hair-brained theory are we testing here?
Well to start with, yes, it's an annihilation. Whatever creature brings us back, they don't do it after a reset. Whoever dies then stays dead. I have heard of people coming here who have supposedly been here before. I've always chalked this up to the fact that we all come from different worlds, different versions of the universe. It stands to reason that in the infinite, there might be more than one version of the same individual.
Where I'm from? Someone kept resetting my timeline? Because I died before completing the quest? And she did that 39 times. I'm from timeline 40. There was a lot of time-magic going on and Jane was being kind of a bitch.
It's a long story? But. There was this Beast, or his sister called him the Beast, and then we did too? But it was really just Marting Chatwin. Yes, from the Fillory books. It turns out, he was a real person, and Fillory was real, too. But. Something horrible happened to him, so he drank from the Wellspring of Magic and grew powerful enough to take on the Gods of Fillory. Who were both dicks, btw.
He was killing people? Destroying Fillory. He attacked our school and ripped out the eyes of the Dean. I had to stop him, but kept failing at it. Some of the timelines were also a little. Dark? But we did it in mine, we-- Alice. Killed the Beast and yeah. So we won that time.
Hate to get off topic but why do you phrase perfectly standard sentences in the form of a question? Is that a cultural thing? I have no idea what Fillory is, other than inferring from context clues that it seems to be a location. That aside, the explanation does clear things up. Magic doesn't exist where I'm from, unless you're going to claim that "sufficiently advanced technology" counts, but that's idiotic. Still, I've seen enough of it around here to know that you're probably neither insane nor making this up as you go. But assuming this is all true, isn't it a good thing that someone was resetting the timeline?
Which brings me back to quantum suicide. It's based on the idea that every choice, every action, every event in which there are multiple outcomes, all of these create different branching realities. In one reality you drink tea, and in another you drink water instead. In one reality you die, and in another, you survive whatever was meant to kill you. Obviously you can no longer experience the timeline in which you died, so your awareness only continues in the world in which you lived. This, by technicality, makes you immortal after a fashion. No matter what kills you, you'll always end up in the timeline in which you do not die. If you were somehow aware of this, aware of all the branching realities, then you could take advantage of it, dying repeatedly without consequence. Hence quantum suicide.
I'm not ?. That's just how I talk and so that's how I type ?.
It wasn't bad ?. But she had no right to do that, and she had no right to make it all about me and my friends. We had nothing to do with any of that ?. And yeah, we survived the Beast but things just for worse after that.
I don't think that's how it was for me? I contacted someone from one of the other timelines, and so did friends of mine. And we affected that timeline ?. In a bad way, and timeline-23 me was still very much alive and kicking. After being brought back to life. But he didn't come back right.
Well, you were. But I suppose I don't care all that much, so suit yourself.
Would you rather have died, then? I'm still not certain I see the issue. It sounds like this Beast was a problem for more than just you. In any case, no, that doesn't sound like the same thing. People in your world can be brought back to life?
My girlfriend blew herself up with magic and turned in to a Niffin to defeat him, so yes. I'd rather it had been me, but every time we tried that, I failed. And that's when the resets happened.
They can, yes. Sometimes. If you know the right spell, and have enough power. If you have enough power, you can do anything.
[He has no idea what half of that first part means, and anyway that's awkward, so he's moving on now thanks.]
You're right about that much. Being able to do anything with enough power seems to be a pan-universal constant. I don't suppose you had any friends, lovers, or family members with enough power?
I used to?. My best friend back home Julia, she used to be a goddess. Our Lady of the Trees. But she burned through all of her god-magic to bring magic back.
I was more or less implying that someone could bring you back from the dead. A phenomenon that might explain why some of us simply disappear and never return.
Also, if there was no magic, how did she use magic to bring magic back?
I don't think they'll try. I went and died pretty much in front of a few of them. So. I don't think any of them would try to get me back. Although, it can be done.
She was a goddess at the time? So, god magic was still there, just not the kind of magic anyone else could use.
It's more about why I died than how I died? But it all circles back to the fact that I don't think they'll try. Because of the implication. And because the last time, in another timeline. When they tried, a version of me came back and killed them all. So.
Why? Is someone trying to bring you back to life? In your spaceship in the future?
You have quite the habit of burying the lede, do you know that? A version of you coming back from the dead and murdering your friends is a much more logical place to start when asked "why wouldn't they bring you back" than telling me about your goddess girlfriend.
And no, that's not really possible in my situation. We can't exactly bring back the long-deceased, but in certain circumstances one could be revived before they've been brain-dead too long for it to matter. Unfortunately I didn't die anywhere near the proper facilities for that. So unless this is all a very long and awful near-death experience, it'll take something else for me to return home.
Also it wasn't my ship, it belonged to my employer.
My goddess BEST friend. I never dated Julia. What, so now my answers are too detailed for you? What?
Maybe they can build you a new body? One that isn't brain-dead, I mean. And put you back in to it. We tried to do that, when one of my friends died. Alice knit him a new body, but it didn't work so now we're stuck with a different Penny. Who's less of an asshole than the real one, but still. He's still an asshole, just in a different way.
What did you work with? Did you fight in space wars?
You mentioned too many people who weren't important to the story. How was I supposed to keep track?
[More like he just didn't care to keep track.]
You're not much of an expert in biology, are you? For all intents and purposes, a human being is a brain. Ignoring all that nonsense about souls and the collective unconscious, the chemicals and electrical signals that make up your thoughts, your emotions, your personality— all in your brain. It's certainly possible to save someone on life support from either death or a totally paralyzed existence, but the brain has to still be functioning. Otherwise it isn't really a person.
Space wars? Really? That's probably the farthest thing from my job. I typically worked with machines so large you probably can't even picture them. Nothing like them existed in what I assume to be your time. They pull molecules from stars and other objects and inject them into a planet's atmosphere, the goal being to make it more hospitable to intelligent life. I remade worlds. It's called terraforming.
No, see. That's really not how it works? Once, my friend Penny died. Penny isn't really a friend-friend, but he was a part of the group. He was a Traveler and while he really was a pain in the ass, he was also helpful. But Penny died, after having spent too much time in the Poison Room at the Library and Alice. She's my girlfriend? Ex-girldfriend? Alice tried to knit him another body, and he was COMPLETELY brain dead.
We burned his body, so. The brain. It was dead. But she tried a bone-knitting spell and it almost worked. If only she'd had more power or if we'd known about cooperative magic back then. If we'd all helped her, I think we could have made it.
So, no. The brain isn't the only important thing. It isn't for us. All the parts that make us who we are? That's not the brain, that's your soul. Your Shade.
You terraformed planets? Really? Did you find aliens?
How is any of that proof that a brain isn't important? Didn't your girlfriend's spell not work because the body was brain dead? Yes, your magic can bring back bodies, but if the brain doesn't work, neither does anything else. A soul is a concept invented because ancient people couldn't figure out the difference between the living and the dead, so they decided the answer was ghosts instead of electrical impulses. To their credit, they didn't exactly have a way to know any better. We do now.
Did we find aliens. Did we find aliens. We've been in contact with non-humans for centuries. There are at least nine intelligent races outside of our own. For that matter, by the old definition of "alien" as "extra-terrestrial", I myself would qualify as I've never set foot on Earth.
She got the brain right, but it was knitting the nervous system that kind of used up all of her magic. Alice is amazing, and I'm pretty sure she could have done it even without help, if magic hadn't been a little fucked up by then. But. She couldn't, and she almost killed herself trying to get him back. The brain really isn't the problem, the problem is 1) knitting a whole body without missing any parts and 2)making sure the soul gets back inside right.
That's not it, no? You have a Shade, a soul. And that's the part of you that moves on when you die. Or, it stays in the Meadows, until you're ready. But there definitely a soul inside of you.
So, what you're saying is -- YOU'RE an alien? Wasn't coming here kind of weird? That your afterlife would be on earth, or you know, something earthlike. And not a spaceship?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
@SuprNerd
You've been here a long time. You said so yourself. You survived the last reset without losing your memories of the last time.
Have we ever met before?
oh my god I'm so sorry I missed this FEEL FREE TO IGNORE IF IT'S TOO OLD...
Why would I lose memories?
You don't forget things when you fail to survive a reset. You die.
Hence the failing to survive.
And aside from talking to you on the network and in town, no, we haven't.
Why? What hair-brained theory are we testing here?
lol, it's fine!
I was just hoping that the reset was a reset? And not an annihilation?
no subject
Whatever creature brings us back, they don't do it after a reset.
Whoever dies then stays dead.
I have heard of people coming here who have supposedly been here before.
I've always chalked this up to the fact that we all come from different worlds, different versions of the universe.
It stands to reason that in the infinite, there might be more than one version of the same individual.
no subject
fuck.
Thanks? For clearing that up.
no subject
no subject
no subject
This sounds a bit like an old thought experiment. Ever hear of "quantum suicide"?
What "quest" were you trying to complete?
no subject
It's a long story? But. There was this Beast, or his sister called him the Beast, and then we did too? But it was really just Marting Chatwin. Yes, from the Fillory books. It turns out, he was a real person, and Fillory was real, too. But. Something horrible happened to him, so he drank from the Wellspring of Magic and grew powerful enough to take on the Gods of Fillory. Who were both dicks, btw.
He was killing people? Destroying Fillory. He attacked our school and ripped out the eyes of the Dean. I had to stop him, but kept failing at it. Some of the timelines were also a little. Dark? But we did it in mine, we-- Alice. Killed the Beast and yeah. So we won that time.
no subject
Is that a cultural thing?
I have no idea what Fillory is, other than inferring from context clues that it seems to be a location.
That aside, the explanation does clear things up.
Magic doesn't exist where I'm from, unless you're going to claim that "sufficiently advanced technology" counts, but that's idiotic. Still, I've seen enough of it around here to know that you're probably neither insane nor making this up as you go.
But assuming this is all true, isn't it a good thing that someone was resetting the timeline?
Which brings me back to quantum suicide.
It's based on the idea that every choice, every action, every event in which there are multiple outcomes, all of these create different branching realities.
In one reality you drink tea, and in another you drink water instead.
In one reality you die, and in another, you survive whatever was meant to kill you.
Obviously you can no longer experience the timeline in which you died, so your awareness only continues in the world in which you lived.
This, by technicality, makes you immortal after a fashion.
No matter what kills you, you'll always end up in the timeline in which you do not die.
If you were somehow aware of this, aware of all the branching realities, then you could take advantage of it, dying repeatedly without consequence.
Hence quantum suicide.
no subject
?. That's just how I talk and so that's how I type?.It wasn't bad
?. But she had no right to do that, and she had no right to make it all about me and my friends. We had nothing to do with any of that?. And yeah, we survived the Beast but things just for worse after that.I don't think that's how it was for me? I contacted someone from one of the other timelines, and so did friends of mine. And we affected that timeline
?. In a bad way, and timeline-23 me was still very much alive and kicking. After being brought back to life. But he didn't come back right.no subject
But I suppose I don't care all that much, so suit yourself.
Would you rather have died, then?
I'm still not certain I see the issue. It sounds like this Beast was a problem for more than just you.
In any case, no, that doesn't sound like the same thing.
People in your world can be brought back to life?
no subject
They can, yes. Sometimes. If you know the right spell, and have enough power. If you have enough power, you can do anything.
no subject
You're right about that much.
Being able to do anything with enough power seems to be a pan-universal constant.
I don't suppose you had any friends, lovers, or family members with enough power?
no subject
?. My best friend back home Julia, she used to be a goddess. Our Lady of the Trees. But she burned through all of her god-magic to bring magic back.I can't do what she did.
no subject
A phenomenon that might explain why some of us simply disappear and never return.
Also, if there was no magic, how did she use magic to bring magic back?
no subject
She was a goddess at the time? So, god magic was still there, just not the kind of magic anyone else could use.
no subject
[Sure. Whatever.]
If they saw you die, and they know you can be brought back, why wouldn't they do it?
Are they that petty?
How dare you die in front of them?
no subject
Why? Is someone trying to bring you back to life? In your spaceship in the future?
no subject
A version of you coming back from the dead and murdering your friends is a much more logical place to start when asked "why wouldn't they bring you back" than telling me about your goddess girlfriend.
And no, that's not really possible in my situation.
We can't exactly bring back the long-deceased, but in certain circumstances one could be revived before they've been brain-dead too long for it to matter.
Unfortunately I didn't die anywhere near the proper facilities for that.
So unless this is all a very long and awful near-death experience, it'll take something else for me to return home.
Also it wasn't my ship, it belonged to my employer.
no subject
Maybe they can build you a new body? One that isn't brain-dead, I mean. And put you back in to it. We tried to do that, when one of my friends died. Alice knit him a new body, but it didn't work so now we're stuck with a different Penny. Who's less of an asshole than the real one, but still. He's still an asshole, just in a different way.
What did you work with? Did you fight in space wars?
no subject
[More like he just didn't care to keep track.]
You're not much of an expert in biology, are you?
For all intents and purposes, a human being is a brain.
Ignoring all that nonsense about souls and the collective unconscious, the chemicals and electrical signals that make up your thoughts, your emotions, your personality— all in your brain.
It's certainly possible to save someone on life support from either death or a totally paralyzed existence, but the brain has to still be functioning.
Otherwise it isn't really a person.
Space wars? Really?
That's probably the farthest thing from my job.
I typically worked with machines so large you probably can't even picture them. Nothing like them existed in what I assume to be your time.
They pull molecules from stars and other objects and inject them into a planet's atmosphere, the goal being to make it more hospitable to intelligent life.
I remade worlds. It's called terraforming.
no subject
[The 'duh' is implied]
No, see. That's really not how it works? Once, my friend Penny died. Penny isn't really a friend-friend, but he was a part of the group. He was a Traveler and while he really was a pain in the ass, he was also helpful. But Penny died, after having spent too much time in the Poison Room at the Library and Alice. She's my girlfriend? Ex-girldfriend? Alice tried to knit him another body, and he was COMPLETELY brain dead.
We burned his body, so. The brain. It was dead. But she tried a bone-knitting spell and it almost worked. If only she'd had more power or if we'd known about cooperative magic back then. If we'd all helped her, I think we could have made it.
So, no. The brain isn't the only important thing. It isn't for us. All the parts that make us who we are? That's not the brain, that's your soul. Your Shade.
You terraformed planets? Really? Did you find aliens?
no subject
Didn't your girlfriend's spell not work because the body was brain dead?
Yes, your magic can bring back bodies, but if the brain doesn't work, neither does anything else.
A soul is a concept invented because ancient people couldn't figure out the difference between the living and the dead, so they decided the answer was ghosts instead of electrical impulses.
To their credit, they didn't exactly have a way to know any better.
We do now.
Did we find aliens. Did we find aliens.
We've been in contact with non-humans for centuries.
There are at least nine intelligent races outside of our own.
For that matter, by the old definition of "alien" as "extra-terrestrial", I myself would qualify as I've never set foot on Earth.
no subject
She got the brain right, but it was knitting the nervous system that kind of used up all of her magic. Alice is amazing, and I'm pretty sure she could have done it even without help, if magic hadn't been a little fucked up by then. But. She couldn't, and she almost killed herself trying to get him back. The brain really isn't the problem, the problem is 1) knitting a whole body without missing any parts and 2)making sure the soul gets back inside right.
That's not it, no? You have a Shade, a soul. And that's the part of you that moves on when you die. Or, it stays in the Meadows, until you're ready. But there definitely a soul inside of you.
So, what you're saying is -- YOU'RE an alien? Wasn't coming here kind of weird? That your afterlife would be on earth, or you know, something earthlike. And not a spaceship?
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
tw: existentialism??? some people don't like that so
I'm good!
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)