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[Hey, it's the ninth of February, which means it's time for the anniversary post from Ruka! Plus with Remus' announcement that morning, it was only a matter of time. It's an audio post, and her voice sounds pretty level, actually. Not really happy or sad or upset, or emotionally swayed any particular direction. All things considered, that is probably Not A Good Sign.]
How do you identify a person? Or rather, what makes a person that person, and not someone else? Is it just their name? The way they look, or their parents, or is it their personality, do you think? Their strengths, or what they know -- is it what they remember? We see people like this all the time here, really. One day a person will show up that people know -- Jack, let's say. Jack is someone from a world and a time a few other people are from; people recognize him, and he's very much like the Jack they remember.
Then Jack leaves.
Maybe a day goes by, maybe a year, it doesn't really matter, but one day Jack comes back. Only, it's not the Jack that was here before--he doesn't remember ever arriving in this City. But that's normal, and it happens all the time, so people just shrug it off and try to start over. This second Jack hasn't ever been to the City, but let's say there's something else different. Maybe he's older than the first Jack; five, ten, twenty years older. They wouldn't really be the same 'Jack,' would they? Or maybe this Jack is the same age as the first, but maybe the Jack we knew was a race car driver and has been for years, but this Jack never managed to, and is a banker instead. Or maybe the Jack we knew was married, or had kids, but if you mentioned them by name to this Jack, he wouldn't know who they were. Maybe the new Jack has amnesia, and started a whole new life, and doesn't even go by 'Jack' anymore. Maybe there never was a first 'Jack' that matched anyone's memory, and the first one who arrived here already had those differences to the Jack that people remembered.
It's a little hard to put into words. When you meet a version of someone you know, but they don't match what you remember, when do you decide they must be a different "version" of a person? How do you figure out where the boundaries are, between different "universes" or different "timelines"? Who gets to make that decision? If Jack arrived and there was no one from his home here, and then a new Jack came with some differences like that, who could say whether or not he was from a different "universe" than the first?
Once you figure that out...
[There's finally a pause here.]
When do we become the dopplegangers, do you suppose?
How do you identify a person? Or rather, what makes a person that person, and not someone else? Is it just their name? The way they look, or their parents, or is it their personality, do you think? Their strengths, or what they know -- is it what they remember? We see people like this all the time here, really. One day a person will show up that people know -- Jack, let's say. Jack is someone from a world and a time a few other people are from; people recognize him, and he's very much like the Jack they remember.
Then Jack leaves.
Maybe a day goes by, maybe a year, it doesn't really matter, but one day Jack comes back. Only, it's not the Jack that was here before--he doesn't remember ever arriving in this City. But that's normal, and it happens all the time, so people just shrug it off and try to start over. This second Jack hasn't ever been to the City, but let's say there's something else different. Maybe he's older than the first Jack; five, ten, twenty years older. They wouldn't really be the same 'Jack,' would they? Or maybe this Jack is the same age as the first, but maybe the Jack we knew was a race car driver and has been for years, but this Jack never managed to, and is a banker instead. Or maybe the Jack we knew was married, or had kids, but if you mentioned them by name to this Jack, he wouldn't know who they were. Maybe the new Jack has amnesia, and started a whole new life, and doesn't even go by 'Jack' anymore. Maybe there never was a first 'Jack' that matched anyone's memory, and the first one who arrived here already had those differences to the Jack that people remembered.
It's a little hard to put into words. When you meet a version of someone you know, but they don't match what you remember, when do you decide they must be a different "version" of a person? How do you figure out where the boundaries are, between different "universes" or different "timelines"? Who gets to make that decision? If Jack arrived and there was no one from his home here, and then a new Jack came with some differences like that, who could say whether or not he was from a different "universe" than the first?
Once you figure that out...
[There's finally a pause here.]
When do we become the dopplegangers, do you suppose?