Someone had a realization [Late in the first day of the Jaunt]

[mytearsaremine]

So um. Just how much are worlds we go to like the ones we came from?

Like, you know, this is California. I just figured that out. But there aren't any cities in California called Santa Carlita, that I remember. But it's still California, so some things are the same.

Right?

Comments

[sees_red]

I'm from Angel Grove, California, but I checked out a map - here it's Santa Barbara.

Still. Same Monterey Bay...

[thornsofmalkav]

Santa Barbara's a city in my world too. And yeah, it's still the Monterey Bay in mine.

[mytearsaremine]

Yeah, it's Santa Barbara where I come from, too. And Monterey Bay, too.

I guess there's kind of a lot of Californians here.

[thornsofmalkav]

At least four of us. Amanda's from SoCal, but she's Infiltrated.

[mytearsaremine]

Yeah, not quite the same thing.

I wonder if that's just... random. Or on purpose. Out of all the places people can be from.

Though I guess there's probably more people from Japan, huh?

[thornsofmalkav]

Hah, yeah. There's probably more people just from Inaba.

I think maybe it's supposed to be semi-random? That's... kind of what it sounds like they're basing the snatching up criteria on, anyway.

[sees_red]

Hey, if you want people who can roll with 'weird,' where better to go to, right?

[mytearsaremine]

Japan, probably. You should hear some of the stuff the other kids from there talk about.

I don't think we've met. I'm Jolie.

[sees_red]

Jason. I'm new.

[unconventionalelf]

I'm still a little lost with all this, it's so, different from my world, and from what I have caught so far, I'm not the only one lost.

[mytearsaremine]

Yeah... this is Earth. And not everybody here is from Earth.

Is there anything I can do to help? Like explain things or anything?

[unconventionalelf]

Someone tried to explain the meaning of the... She called it a board walk. But I'm still confused as to why people seem happy to ride in the belly of metal beasts.

Or how so many people can fit unseen in one to play music.

[ She's not meaning to sound silly! ] Truly this Earth has stronger magi than those of Krynn.

[mytearsaremine]

[It's okay, Jolie is taking it as unbearably cute rather than silly. Also, explaining things is a nice distraction.]

That's because they aren't beasts. They're machines. Um. Do you have carriages where you come from? Or wagons? They're like those, only instead of being pulled by horses, they're powered by fire inside them. That's why they smoke or steam sometimes.

The music part, though... that's-- hmm. Do you have magic where you come from? Illusions? It's like that. They aren't really playing inside the tape or record or whatever they're using in the 80s, pretty sure they don't have CDs. Anyway, it's a recording, something that happened a long time ago but they made a copy of, so that people who weren't there can listen to it, too. It's not really magic, but it's kind of like it.

[set_your_watches_for_fun]

Yes, though it's difficult to say what might be, and what might not. Often these version are alternate timelines, and without pinpointing exactly where the split took place, or what the primary differences are, one cannot say what will and won't be the same as your own timeline. For example, there may be a version of yourself or friends or family here, but they may be somewhere else geographically entirely, different sorts of people, or completely missing.

From what I've seen, our captors don't send us anywhere which is actually our home timeline, nor does there appear to be any alternate versions of ourselves, so the likelihood of finding familiar faces is perhaps less that one might hope.

[mytearsaremine]

Well, I mean, I'm not even born yet, if this is the 80s. So I wouldn't find me, anyway.

[But her family... that's another story.]

So what you're saying is you don't think there's any chance it's like home, here?

[set_your_watches_for_fun]

Certainly not. There's every chance it's a bit like your home, but I think it unlikely it would have the same people, unless someone's gotten sloppy.

[mytearsaremine]

What do you mean by sloppy?

[thornsofmalkav]

It depends. It really depends.

Like, Santa Carlita is Santa Carla where I come from--I mean, literally where I come from, my family's house was in Soquel--and I think Sara said it was Santa Cruz where she comes from. And there's a lot of things that are the same or similar under different names, but. It's not exactly the same.

... you're also Californian, aren't you?

[mytearsaremine]

... yeah. I am.

[That may sound a little bit guilty, not because she feels badly about being from California, but because of what she's thinking and what Thorne might be able to guess about it from her question.]

[thornsofmalkav]

There's a Greyhound station in downtown Santa Carlita if you want to go home and check on things.

[mytearsaremine]

[Yep, exactly what she's thinking, Thorne. Jolie isn't normally hesitant, but this is a special circumstance, and she's afraid of what she might or might not find.]

Can I do that?

[neverfeltthatway]

There seems to be a lot of parallel versions of this world in particular, that are close to each other but never exactly the same...

[mytearsaremine]

Kind of like how there are a lot of people from parallel versions of this world, too, that are all a little different. Like, mine doesn't have vampires and Thorne's does, but they both have California, and Raidou's has demons and mine doesn't.

Like, is Earth somehow really important in the scheme of things, to have this many versions of it? Or is it really just random that so many of us come from Earth, and we visit Earth so often?

[neverfeltthatway]

Yes - it seems to be the most common world for both where we come from and for where we're going. There's even a large number of worlds that seem to differ only in the events of a small town in rural Japan over the course of a year - we have proof of at least four or five nearly identical worlds from the persona users.

I don't know, but that's a question I've often asked. It's the earliest pattern that presented itself when looking at the data for our experience through the worlds.

[mytearsaremine]

Maybe somebody should ask the Arcana. I mean, they're the ones who would know, right? Just-- why else so much Earth? Maybe in a lot of other universes, there really isn't all that much life besides humans...? Though if Star Wars is real, that's a whole universe full of aliens right there, we could visit there.