text | the city is a woman (or three)

[theveilisin]

Hello, my dears. A small inquiry, if you could spare some time.
Like many of you, I am quite naturally curious about the memories we keep receiving. The impression I’ve gotten so far is that they mostly concern specific events and people. The one I’ve gotten so far, however, is a tiny bit different.
It is, simply put, the knowledge of the existence of a city. Thremedon, it was called - presumably a bastardization of the words “Three Maidens”, since the different parts of the city were called Miranda, Charlotte and Molly.
Has anyone experienced anything similar? That your memory is closer to dry facts than actual experience? Seems a bit drab, I suppose, but I find it interesting nonetheless.

Well, I did get a rather impressive bird’s eye view of the city as well, but I guess that could just as well have been a picture in a textbook for all I know. I’m an old pilot in this life, so it felt somewhat nostalgic, but the city looked like something out of another century, so that seems unlikely.
But look at me going on and on. I won’t keep you for any longer. Thank you.

[Why Is He So Pretentious? TL;DR he just wants to know if others have remembered facts rather than events, and used half a thesaurus to accomplish it.]

Comments

[doesntdiscriminate]

Nope, not really. I think I would have preferred it if they had. All two(!!!) of the memories I've had so far have been pretty experience based.

One of them does take place in the town I presume I grew up in, but all I know about it is what I've been able to guess or extrapolate from the memory itself. For all I know it could be the city you're remembering. It would be one hell of a coincidence, of course, but they seem to be happening quite often these days.

Either way I think talking about it is supposed to help. Shouldn't be much of a problem for you, right? :P
Who knows, it might spark something more for either of us.

[theveilisin]

I suppose such memories are a bit more intense, yes. And perhaps a bit harder to interpret, as well. In the heat of the moment, as it were.

The one I had is fairly straightforward, however. Apart from describing more closely what the city looked like - from the air, mind you - the only tidbit I left out was what the three different names stood for. Apparently Miranda was the name for the upper class quarters, Charlotte for the middle class, and Molly was the name for the slums. Seems like it was a fairly segregated city, if such a system was considered common knowledge.

[doesntdiscriminate]

There's that, yes. Less emotional too, I'd expect.

Well, it's not like I've got something better to do at the moment so if you feel like waxing poetically on about its architecture or brickwork or how the light of the sun reflects of its rooftops or whatnot I don't really mind listening.

Sound like a pretty dividing way of doing things, yeah. Do you know how they handled the borders between two quarters? Like, were they physical things or more invisible lines everyone knows about?

There's a bit of interesting word usage there too, though not entirely unexpected. Unless using those particular words was your choice instead of you repeating the information from your memory. Which would still be interesting but in a way more directly pertaining to you rather than the memory in question. Upper class, middle class, and then the slums. Not lower class. Slums.

[theveilisin]

I regret to say that I cannot be so exact. While the image is quite clear, it is also somewhat distant. I can however tell you that the architecture largely looked Victorian, with a hint of later industrial revolution here and there. Oh, and some of the buildings, a palace of some sort I imagine, brought my mind to Russia.

I could see no clear borders as such, although it was nonetheless pretty clear which parts of the city were which. From the buildings and paving and so on. I imagine the borders were more cultural than anything.

And I’m not sure if it was my own bias or the image itself that caused me to use those words. But that is the impression I did indeed get. Not to mention that even from the air, that part of the city looked remarkably decrepit.

[doesntdiscriminate]

Right, you did mentioned it being a bird's eye view thing at the start. Also I'll admit right now that I googled "Russian victorian house" and the results I got was pretty interesting. And colorful. Not sure if what I've seen is even remotely like what you've just described though. ^^;

A place for everyone and everyone in their place? Then again it's not like we don't do it here too, albeit on a smaller, or at least more subtle, scale.

So, would you say the difference in appearance between Molly and Charlotte was greater than between Charlotte and Miranda?

[theveilisin]

Well, this was a more urban area, but the general look of things is not too far off. Though the palace (I assume) looked more like this.

Exactly. Though I got the impression that the borders were a lot more absolute in this city.

That is a correct surmise, yes. The difference between Miranda and Charlotte seemed more gradual, too. Molly appeared more like a waste heap for the two richer sisters, as it were. A grey, rickety and miserable place.

[doesntdiscriminate]

Really? Sounds like it could be very beautiful city.
(Not really related but I feel like I should share that while looking for Russian architecture I happened upon something called the Peacock House. ;p)
Is any of this doing anything for you, btw?

Absolute, huh? I suppose advancing from one quarter to another wouldn't be very easy then, though the opposite might not be quite as difficult.

Hah, sounds a bit like Cinderella when you put it like that. Though with less of a chance of a happy ending, I guess.
Sorry, I probably shouldn't make fun because it really fucking isn't. I just- actually I think part of it is that I don't want to say anything too bad or insensitive about something that might have been really important to you, or past you or w/e, when you're just starting to remember it. Which might be really silly. Or not. And I'm just going to stop now before I embarrass myself. ...Further.

[theveilisin]

It was. Truly magnificent, in fact, though not necessarily nice.
(I of the house, but I’ve sadly never even been to Tomsk. A great opportunity for tired jokes has clearly been missed.)
Honestly this talk of Russia just makes me think I should call my old mom; I miss hearing what is truly my mother tongue.

I imagine moving from one to the other was not easy if that was the case - though you have to appreciate that a lot of this is still speculation. I still know very little of my own personal relationship with this city.

Which means you shouldn’t worry too much, my dear. It will be hard to offend me until I have any ground to take any of this personally - and I don’t get offended easily in the first place. I’ve been in the military, remember?

[doesntdiscriminate]

They are, unfortunately, not things that necessarily go hand in hand.
(There's still time. You're not dead yet, old man.)
Well, at least that's better than nothing? I'm sure she'd like it if nothing else. ^^

I do. It's why a part of my brain looks at this and goes "Yey! Worldbuilding as an intellectual exercise!" before I remember that we're talking about a real place and not a fictional one.

Yeah, I remember. Kind of hard to forget actually. Then again it's not really present you I'm worried about offending. More like future you, or possible future you, and/or possible past you. Look I didn't say it was logical, did I?

Too much damn time of talking about my feelings just has me overthinking things instead. (◞‸ლ)

[theveilisin]

Truth. It more or less describes my ex-wife, now that I think about it.
(Well, no. But the recent troubles seem to have cut us off mostly from the rest of the world, or at least the world as we know it.)
Of course she would. Where do you think I got my talkativeness from? And she has an advantage on me.

It's funny, though. Almost as soon as I wrote that it's not doing much, I did in fact remember something. More specifically, that I was from Charlotte, and that I somehow managed to elevate myself to Miranda. That, and that it was indeed very rare. It was not viewed kindly, straying too close to the edges.

...Sabo, my dear. You're being more than a little silly. But then again, I like silly people.

[doesntdiscriminate]

I feel like I should be making some kind of parallel or joke here, but frankly I think I might be a bit scared of your ex-wife so I'm just not gonna.
(I know. But I'm still hoping that's not going to last forever.)
How does your dad ever get a word in edgewise?

Aha, Victory!
You must have done something really impressive! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Yeah, I was afraid of that. The me being silly bit. I'm not trying to be, I guess it just comes naturally to me.

[theveilisin]

An appropriate attitude.
(Me too. I don’t want the majority of time I’ve spent abroad to involve people trying to kill me.)
Easy. He doesn’t try unless he really has to.

I didn’t get a sense of what exactly, other than that it concerned my career. So most likely something more interesting than retail.

Well, I enjoy it, so clearly you’re doing something right.

[doesntdiscriminate]

You're not helping!
(Have I ever told you that you have a very charming way of looking at life? Anyway, if you ever do manage to make it to Tomsk you should seriously consider stopping by Germany on the way. It's awesome!)
Ah, smart man. He choses his battles.

Yeah, I'd say your former career would be more suitable for something like that than your current one. Maybe you were an inventor? That would be cool!

Doesn't that depend on whether you're laughing with me or at me?

[floret]

I've remembered events and people, but I've also remembered a few facts. Stuff about swords, mostly...

[theveilisin]

Swords? That does paint a dramatic picture, doesn’t it? Well, that or a more mundane yet interesting one. That rather depends on the facts. Which sort is it?

[floret]

Um... I'm not sure. Is it impossible for things that are mundane yet interesting to also be dramatic?

[angealwings]

I've remembered words. Without context. But not an entire city, no.

[theveilisin]

Words in a different language? Or just ones you’be never heard before? I do realize that without context, that might be hard to ascertain, but perhaps you can take a stab at it anyway.

[angealwings]

No, not really. 'Dumbapple' and 'Banora White.' Not much to go on with those.

Not much, compared to a city.

[yakan]

Does remembering the appearance of creatures and nothing else about the context count?

Oh! And I did remember a fact! "People are so casual about violence"!