retrospec | 001. Text // Kick it right out of frame

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001. Text // Kick it right out of frame - does it matter?

You know, this may be a slightly inane question, but since apparently I'm being made to deal with the local social media conspiracy firsthand, this is hardly the stupidest thing I'm going to decide to do. At least, as far as the rest of you lot tend to tell it.

So! While we're all here and blundering our way through this holiday season – does anyone have any idea what the ratio is here for "people remembering reasonably normal lives" set against "people whose past lives were apparently some sort of weird genre-fiction mess"? If you want to describe your particular brand of genre-fiction mess, do feel free, but it's not required.

Asking for a friend, obviously. ♡

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I'm not actually sure what the ratio is. 5:1, weird to normal?

I befriend monsters, if that answers your genre question. Maybe you can get a better idea of our memory demographics through internet polling.

Monsters really do seem to be a common theme around here, though most fight them instead of befriending them, from what I've seen.

I'm pretty sure most monsters won't chill out if you fight them until you come to an understanding, either. Or fit into weird little balls.

[He's more than made his peace with it, but there's no way he can't describe that and not have it sound absolutely baffling.]

Have you remembered any monsters?

[...He hates every single one of you people. Why did he ask this.]

I can safely say that I haven't! Of the "defeat means friendship" sort or otherwise.

Well, just keep dreaming. Maybe you're familiar with cute little ones that are only around to make you feel bad about taking them out. Maybe you'll remember nothing but weird looking behemoths that could wipe out a city if you pissed them off.

Just taking a wild guess, I'm going to assume that you've dealt with both.

I sure have.

I think the Christmas bird still takes the cake, though.

I'm actually not sure I want to know! ♡

So what do you do about the behemoths if they're not here for your message of friendship by way of punching them very hard? I'd imagine that'd have to be at least somewhat an issue?

Fight for your life or try really hard not to die, probably.

[That's... real encouraging.]

I'm firmly convinced that someday I'm going to remember trying to non lethally handle an eldritch horror, so I try not to think about it too much.

Given that people's memories tend to trend toward the unreasonable, from what I've heard, I can't say that I disagree with you.

Do you still think it's all some stupid flat earth stuff?

[Hm.]

I don't know if I'd say that, so much as I don't see why we're expected to care at all about some worlds that technically aren't even ours anymore.

[...This guy really is a riot, isn't he?]

Care to elaborate on that? Last I checked, not many people are eager to rally to the defense of the broken worlds.

[Except for that one pissed guy, of course, but that's not the point.]

Edited 2017-11-22 23:55 (UTC)

Of course. As far as I understand, the worlds we came from are dead, and so the memories we're getting regarding them no longer matter in the scheme of things. Those lives are long over, we're different people now, with our own personalities and experiences - and yet there everyone is, having some sort of identity crisis over what this means for us and being concerned over things we didn't do, in lives that no longer concern us, on dead worlds that don't matter.

It all seems a little pointless, if you ask me.

It's not just memories. There are physical changes that come with this stuff too, some more drastic than others. Most of the memories are fine, but it's weird getting that deep into someone else's thoughts and feelings. Maybe it would be different if it was someone that wasn't supposed to be some past you and was a complete stranger instead.

If you don't end up questioning yourself, then more power to you.

[You absolute crazy person.]

I don't see how that would make much of a difference. But then, as far as I'm concerned, these experiences aren't mine - maybe they were once, but it's not as though things haven't changed since then, and I'm not going to just throw my current life away in favor of becoming someone else just because a third party seems to have decided that I should.

I agree, mostly. We still have our current lives, and we get to control and make our own decisions. But I can't act like my memories don't seem important to me, either, although I'll admit that I'm in a strange position since retrospec mails me some of my monster friends every now and then.

Learning from the past is important, don't you think? I think that's what it boils down to for me. Everyone has their own answer, of course.

[It's a half-truth, but he doesn't exactly want to get that deep into it with the flippant heart guy.]

[THE FLIPPANT HEART GUY APPRECIATES NOT BEING TOLD ENTIRELY TOO MUCH ABOUT FEELINGS AND EVERYTHING TODAY, YES...]

Perhaps, but I'd think that some lessons go a bit without saying, don't you think?

[like, you know, the ones everyone seems concerned about. like "mass murder is bad."]

Mostly. Don't kill people should be obvious. Something more personal, like "if something bad happens to you, talk to people about it before you snap with grief and do something you regret" isn't something as obvious.

I'd hope most people have a bit more restraint than that, even.

[oh my god i am sorry about cumore's status as a bunch of eels in a suit]

With commendable restraint like that, I guess your memories really are nothing to worry about.

[It's cool how you get those eels to move in synchronized patterns like that-]

I wouldn't think that that's an odd stance to take. I understand grieving, surely, but not to the extent of snapping like that.

It's just an example. You really can't think of any situation where you'd act irrationally, or anything that would make you doubt yourself? It doesn't even have to be something serious or criminal.

Although I guess that's a pretty abstract question. It's tough to explain this stuff. It doesn't help that everyone's memories are wildly different. I didn't think much of mine for a few months.

And since I doubt you'd volunteer that last part without at least some desire to share with the class, I suppose I'll bite - what changed your mind, then?

I guess I should clarify that we didn't know these memories were supposed to be ours before August. People came up with alternate universe or reincarnation theories, but most people wanted nothing to do with them for obvious reasons.

My memories were bizarre right off the bat, but I never did anything bad enough to have a crisis over. The thing that started to get to me was sort of stupid, actually. I got a handful of memories about combat when all the monsters started showing up. There was an apocalypse outside, and I didn't know a damn thing about anything more than a fistfight, but I could slip into a way more composed mindset like a glove.

[It's probably not going to make sense to this guy, but it's the best way he can think to describe it. The big crazy things are easy to blow off. The smaller, more understandable ones, not so much.]

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drydrown - 2017-11-30 15:18 (UTC) - Expand

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