[voice]

[sentbytheseer]

[The voice is that of a young man, a little East Coast in accent.]

Late getting here, but look, ok. It took me a minute to cope with whole...thing. Kind of crashed my bike on that first memory, so, you know, wasn't exactly up to hanging out and making friends on the "Different Social Media Channel."

Anyway, I was gonna come on here and be like "Nice to meet you all," but then there's some guy talking about having memories of dying and instead I want to know where we un-sign up for this. Because it was kind of fun-and-games when it was like ...fighting monsters and voice-in-your-head prophecies, but--yeah. Not cool.

...Sorry. Not to make light of his--memory, but it sounds like I got off easy.

I don't really have a question, since I take it we can't really unsign-up. Just thought I should check-in on this thing.

[A pause]

No, actually I do have a question. The Martin guy said he was the, uh. [He fishes out the business card.] The, uh, Head of the Department of Containment at the Bureau of Inter-dimensional Activities.

Are we all supposed to be from different dimensions, or like...the same one?

Comments

[serpentinthegarden]

Northern English backwoods. I doubt the Bureau is international. They seem to be primarily focused here.

[ He hoped. ]

Cute? You're trying to make them sound cute? I prefer mocking. We need a good mocking term for them.

[sentbytheseer]

Cool, so you're going to go live off the grid like a hermit? Sounds fun, by which I mean NOT fun.

Hey, I didn't think it was all that cute, but you want to do better, have at it, pal. You can't just critique and not offer some alternatives. Come on. Lets see what you can cook up.

[serpentinthegarden]

What?? No! Hexham isn't off the grid. It just teeters on the line. Not much night life there at all, some times I think there are more sheep than people... It's where I grew up. Most of the family is still there. All good reasons not to move back there now that I think on it.

Right, mocking nicknames, made up on the fly. Mr. Martini, cause he could use a few to loosen up that frown. And then you have Ms. Becker whose name could be made into something really rude just by changing a single letter!

[sentbytheseer]

Sounds like a fun place to visit, but not much to live at.

See, I didn't want to go that route. I wanted to keep it somewhat PG, so everyone could call them whatever ridiculous moniker we come up with. You know, water down some of their threat level. Hard to take them seriously if we call them something silly. That and Bureau is such a pain to spell.

[serpentinthegarden]

There's a reason why I left.

I admit those nickname lack nuance but better that than being cute about it. You wouldn't want people thinking the Bureau were your friendly neighborhood purple dinosaur when they were secretly Jack the Ripper.

[sentbytheseer]

I mean, not to knock it. England's got trains and seems like it'd be fun to go around, but I'm not sure the sheep to people ratio really sells it as a place to settle down.

You think Barney wasn't secretly Jack the Ripper? I don't know, man. It was a guy in a suit. Could have been hiding anything under there, kind of like the Bureau.

Unless you mean Dino, then I guess he seems okay.

[darkforcerising]

I guess if we're using Earth as the center from which we say life forms.

What if Earth humans are the aliens?

[sentbytheseer]

Wouldn't we be, if we were on Tatoo-ween? [All these new words he doesn't know how to say, please excuse.] Heck, I'd be an alien in Canada. Or on Mars. Pretty sure that's the premise of at least one Twilight Zone.

Really, I guess we're all aliens to this dimension. None of us are from here. It just sounds like some of us are really not from here.

Like, when they said "dimensions" I thought, you know. Alternate dimensions. Comic book stuff. Like weird mirror-verse stuff--but still on Earth. But instead we're living that Ancient Aliens meme.

[darkforcerising]

Hey, I was still born here.

We are both alien and not alien.

[sentbytheseer]

Shrodinger's alien?

text

[hardtoignore]

Sorry to hear about your bike, dude. I usually have my memories come back to me in my sleep, so I guess I've lucked out.

I think a lot of us are from different dimensions if these memories are real at all. Like, I've seen quite a few things from my past life or whatever, but there's never been monsters involved for me, thank heavens.

[serpentinthegarden]

The trains were the best part. As a kid I used to hop them. You end up having adventures all over the country that way.

Uhmm.... You do have a point about Barney. We would never know if he was! And there was something about that smile. It was creepy!

text

[sentbytheseer]

yeah really hoping it's not gonna be a trend or anything. bike made it this time, might not be so lucky next

idk i feel like I was maybe gonna be ok, even w the monsters. like there was this sort of heroic feeling to the whole figting monsters thing? I'm not really that big of an optimist, but it was kind of cool

[hardtoignore]

It sounds dangerous. Hopefully you'll mostly get them in your sleep from now on.

Lucky you. Not everyone gets to be a hero, so that's kinda neat. I mean, as long as you're not being traumatized...

[sentbytheseer]

EXACTLY. That was me as a kid, too; though the US doesn't have quite the system in place for trains, the Amtrak wasn't bad.

See? Probably ate the kids or something. Creeptastic.

[sentbytheseer]

I'm guessing we don't get a choice, but hopefully

I'm sure we're getting htere. whats a hero without a tragic backstory?

[darkforcerising]

Hmm... But then are we living both lives simultaniously?

Or is there a strict liniar order to our lives - this life and the one before it? In that case we were aliens before but now we are not.

[hardtoignore]

Tell me about it. I wish I could rewind back before all this. Sometimes.

Eh, I guess as long as someone else pays for the therapy, it's all good.

[sentbytheseer]

And now we're getting too philosophical. That's a bit too cerebral for me. Maybe it's neither, though. I mean, who's to say anymore how any of this works.

[sentbytheseer]

totally. How long have you been in for?

I don't know if fantasy lands offer therapy, aside from slicing and dicing monsters

[hardtoignore]

You make it sound like it's a jail sentence.... Been in this mess since February I think? Most of the year anyway.

Maybe the Bureau will pay for you to have it here?

[sentbytheseer]

well, idk maybe. has everyone been in this since feb? am I the only new guy? the kid said he was here since Feb too. didn't ask the other two

I'd rather the Big B stay far away from my mental health k thx

[consortofalderaan]

I hadn't thought about different dimensions. But that would explain a lot.

Or some. It creates more questions. Like how did we get here from there?

[sentbytheseer]

Well. I mean, it's on the card: Inter-dimensional Activities. And the things I'm remembering definitely aren't anything from around here.

I don't know. You'd think we'd know if we crossed through something, right? And you'd think my parents would've noticed a long time ago if they just suddenly acquired a kid that isn't theirs?

[hardtoignore]

No, people have been phasing in all year. Now I wonder if maybe inevitably all of New York City will end up as Different...

Fair enough. But I mean, not everyone can afford it on their own.