001. text // i'm wide awake the more i sleep

[manufactured]

I'll preface this now with the notion that I don't expect anyone to respond with the content of their memories, should this be relevant to them. It's more a question being shouted into the void, because I don't care to keep it in my head any longer. Make of it what you will; treat it as a pure hypothetical if it suits you, it isn't as though I'll know the difference.

But has anyone had the suspicion that they may have been on the wrong side of whatever conflict may have been occurring in these memories of theirs? Or if not something so drastic, perhaps it's just that the person you seem to have been back then was deserving of, at the very least, a solid shake and a slap across the face.

Either way, people like to assert here that whomever you are now isn't the same as the person you're remembering, and I wholeheartedly agree with that notion. However, the question likewise comes up from time to time of whether or not the patterns we recall are what we're destined to fall into again.

That possibility becomes decidedly more difficult to disregard when the memories you receive are of someone that you have neither the interest nor the desire to become.

Comments

[feistytrader]

All I remember about that one is that I used to wear a creepy mask and walk around with a bunch of other people in creepy masks. They look sort of like drama masks, so you can't make out anyone's faces with them on.

[manufactured]

That's absolutely fascinating, if you don't mind my saying so.

[feistytrader]

I'd just like to know what genre my alternate life is going for. I should get a bingo card going for it with the center being Disney Princess.

[manufactured]

That sounds like the sort of thing that would bring Jim entirely too much amusement, if you ask me. But do as you like.

[feistytrader]

I can make you one, if you'd like. I'm not big on horror or sci-fi, but I'm sure I can come up with something.

[manufactured]

...I'm both tempted to tell you no and morbidly curious to see what you end up throwing at me.

[feistytrader]

[Pretend this is an actual image and not a spreadsheet, I'm lazy.]

Enjoy.

[manufactured]

[...Holy shit.]

Plants, of all things...?

[feistytrader]

[An image!]

You know, plants.

[manufactured]

...Right. If I happen to witness any giant man-eating plants, I'll be sure to mark that off.

[feistytrader]

Quick question. Did you also remember some kind of freaky plant that could kill a guy, or is that just me?

[manufactured]

[...there is a pause.]

It wasn't a matter of "could" kill a person, in my case.

[feistytrader]

Did you get to kill it with a flamethrower?

[manufactured]

Unfortunately not. A few people I don't recognize shot it, however.

[feistytrader]

Yeah, that should do it.
A couple of guns against the giant plant monster.
No big deal.



Did it work?

[manufactured]

...I had a response typed here before I realized that part of the memory in question probably should have struck me as more fundamentally wrong than it did at the time.

[feistytrader]

Yeah? Which part?

[manufactured]

I realized they defeated it by shooting its joints out, and then shooting it in the face multiple times once it was down.

Meaning that apparently, at the time I found nothing wrong with the fact that this plant approximately the size of a six-story building also had legs for some bizarre reason, nor did I mind the idea that these three random people's instincts upon seeing this were to run over with handguns and try to kneecap it.

[feistytrader]

[...So Wesker's from a horror video game. Got it.]

If it works, it works.
Were you sitting back and watching this from some giant screens in a dark room we won't see the interior of for another twenty episodes, or were you riding the damn thing?

[manufactured]

Neither. It was from a distance, but I was outdoors.

I'm not sure "flattered" is the right word to use, but the notion that I would sit back like some sort of evil mastermind in my own personal fortress watching all of this is an interesting one. Although I will say it was odd for other reasons - namely, that I didn't seem to have any personal stake in the outcome.

[feistytrader]

I was originally going to ask you why you didn't help, but since you said in advance that your memories aren't of a very great dude, I decided to be as hyperbolic.