008 Things Aquired - [text;]

[ossifragant]

So here's a question for all of you. What's the furthest you've been from home? Before coming here, I mean. This place doesn't count. I want to know how far people have traveled before coming here.

The name of the place you're from, the name of the place you like going. What your favorite city is called. Things like that.

I've always liked traveling. But I used to spend years in one place, even so. Always found myself drawn back to where I was born. It's one of those interesting things about people. I don't exactly miss the place, but I do find myself thinking about it sometimes. What it would be like if we could go back with memories of this place instead of forgetting everything.

So there's a second part of my question, I guess.

Say you go home, but you remember everything from here. What would you do with that information?

What if you arrived home at a time before the last thing you remember?

Comments

[ossifragant]

Dragons?

There are dragons in your world?

[That is so cool.]

I didn't realize that people could remember. Remember after coming back here, sure, but not back there. Maybe it varies from person to person.

I've been told I was here before, but I don't remember a thing about it.

It's not like telling people would make a difference. They would probably think that you were joking, or had some dream you didn't want to let go of.

[berkthorn]

There are! My best friend's a dragon.

[...Which he can't tell if that makes it sound more cool or more sad, but oh well. What's typed is typed, and he certainly thinks it's cool.]

It must be. People come in from different times too so asking this place to be consistent is pretty useless.

Exactly. I was already mostly convinced of that myself, so it's possible that if I had talked about it, I would have had to forget about it by dismissing it as fake.

[ossifragant]

[Greed's best friend was a mass murderer, so uh...

Thankfully his reaction to that statement is more "dragons are cool!"]

I'd like to see a dragon. Sure, there are Pokemon sort of like dragons here, but that's not the same thing as a real, actual dragon.

I'd like to see one. There's nothing like dragons where I'm from. There are chimera, but they're not naturally occurring animals.

I wonder what would cause the memories of this place to fade? But then again, I can't really remember much about that strange weekend back in May, either.

[berkthorn]

Oh, I don't know about that. My dragons certainly seem dragon-y to me. Not exactly the same, sure, but close enough, and I wouldn't be surprised if I found dragons more like them back home, eventually. We discover new ones all the time.

Unfortunately, if my bud came here, he'd be turned into a human, so it's not so easy to show you. What's a chimera?

You should consider yourself lucky. The first time I came here, no one could remember a thing. That there's any memory at all now is a blessing.

[ossifragant]

Really? Well, I guess I wouldn't know since I don't have any!

Changing into a human be odd for your friend, I bet. It'd be like if one of my Pokemon were suddenly human.

Chimera are combinations of different animals. [And sometimes people, but he's not going to mention that part.] It's not something considered appropriate by polite society, but some people love to play god.

[berkthorn]

Well, it definitely took him some getting used to the last time he was here... That was ages ago, now. He's used to have retractable teeth, so he wound up biting his lip a lot, and he couldn't fly or speak. I met another dragon here that was able to talk like a human, though.

I see. [He doesn't really get it, but he's got the feeling that it's something along the lines of "taking apart corpses", in terms of queasiness.] They must not be very common either then, I would think.

[He would...hope...]

[ossifragant]

I don't think they're that common, no. Illegal experimentation tends to be rather frowned on.

I imagine not being able to fly would be difficult.

I had a few problems when I first came here myself. Some of them were rather mundane, though, like not being able to see in the dark as well as I used to. I've always looked human, though. I imagine it's much worse for someone who doesn't.

[berkthorn]

Seeing in the dark sounds pretty useful, especially since there are also nocturnal pokemon. What were you before, if you don't mind me asking? It's interesting to see how many kinds we can get here.

[ossifragant]

The word for it is homunculus, but I wouldn't be surprised if you're unfamiliar with the term. It seems exclusive to my world.

[berkthorn]

Definitely unfamiliar, but I'm not surprised either. After hearing that dragons aren't crawling over every world and that they become humans here, it got hard to be surprised pretty fast.

[ossifragant]

I imagine!

It took me a bit to adjust, but I've been here a few months at this point and I honestly don't think anyone's world could surprise me.

Confuse me, sure, there's a lot out there I don't know about. Mostly I find the different worlds out there interesting.

[berkthorn]

That's faster than a lot of people adjust, I think, and it sounds like we're just about the same. I knew someone who refused to even say the word pokemon after months and months. He tried to find a scientific way to explain everything.

The ones who used to be talking ponies really messed him up.

[ossifragant]

[He's... actually fairly certain he knows people like that.]

I've always been quick to adjust to things.

I've never met any of the people who used to be talking horses, fortunately. That's a little weird even for me. I'm sure they're fine people, though.

[berkthorn]

The ones I've met have been very nice. But then most of the time I usually have an easier time getting along with non-humans than humans.

I don't even know if they're still around, though.

[ossifragant]

I wouldn't know.

[He reads through the network quite often, but he hasn't exactly seen public discussions about being nonhuman.

Well, besides Greed being open about what he is.]

I'm sure you could send them messages and see if they answer, right?

[berkthorn]

Unfortunately, real specific things like numbers didn't stick in my brain, and my pokegear got switched out for a new one when I came back. I guess that's the price I pay for leaving for almost a year in this place's time.

[ossifragant]

Ah, that's a good point. I couldn't remember things like that either, truthfully.

I'm sure they'll show up eventually if they are still around. I'm sure it'll be a pleasant surprise for them, too.