video - ID reads Wally West

[runningstart]

What's the longest someone's ever been here? A few years or something, right? Four? Five.

[The camera goes all skewed when Wally sets his phone down nearby. He picks up a container of Hershey's chocolate syrup and empties it into an ice cream carton before reaching for a soup spoon to eat out of it.]

Y'know what's nuts? I bet someone could live a whole life here, if they never got Ported out. If it gets stabilized or something? Like, what if somebody showed up when they were like ten, and then they lived here for fifty years? They could have kids, grandkids. Graduate, get a job, maybe do the superhero thing if they felt like it. [Shakes up a can of whipped cream and sprays it into the carton.

...keeps spraying. Until. Until it's empty.]

You could totally have a whole dual life here. Would it be a dual life if it stops existing when you go back? -but yeah, you'd be on your deathbed and then you could decide, okay, that's enough, and get Ported back home and you're ten years old again and you live whatever life back home.

[huge spoonful into the mouth] 'N 'f y'think 'bout it, [swallow] isn't the life you forget just as important as the one you actually die in? I mean, just because you go back home and don't remember your friends, they still remember you. Or I dunno, maybe it stops counting if they forget you too.

But scientifically, I mean, it doesn't. Doesn't not-count. It counts, even if people forget, because it still exists in reality. That's the cool thing about the multiverse hypothesis- I guess it's not just a hypothesis anymore, knowing what we know about here. That there's infinite possibilities, and the only reason one doesn't exist is because it just hasn't been discovered yet. I mean, it doesn't matter if you subscribe to Tegmark's levels or Greene's types, it's all still the same, right? Possibility.

Holy crap, this is great ice cream. [He turns the carton to face the camera.] See that? "Red, White and Bugles." Whoever thought of putting chips in ice cream deserves a medal. [He turns the carton back on its side and scrapes out the last of it. ...and then pours more chocolate syrup on the spoon and licks it off his hand like a pig.] Mmmm.

Anyway. I started out with the point, but I can't-

Right.

Anybody else here never wanna go back home? I know there's some of you with crappy apocalypse worlds that don't have a whole lot to offer. Or what about staying here sixty years and then just going right back to where you left off? Sixty. I think I said fifty. Whatever, not important.

Get this ice cream, it's freakin' bomb.

Comments

text; comm tag is "Tadashi"

[tadeadshi]

[He'll get to the actual conversation in a minute just-- hold on]

I cannot believe you're eating that.

voice

[runningstart]

It's ice cream, what's the problem?

[munies]

[ .... well ]

You already know my answer.

[ big far no nope not going back never nope. and it's not.. just cause she's dead there. that is certainly not the only reason why!! ]

Although all of this is interesting, [ she's circling her finger, signifying ALL THIS ] what you're saying here. I mean, it's certainly telling.

[ POINTED LOOK ]

permavid

[runningstart]

About the ice cream? Tell me about it. It's actually crazy good, it's like putting waffle cone right into ice cream but only it's salty. You definitely need to try it, I think they only put it out for Independence Day.

video

[airshow]

Okay, one, chips in ice cream sounds freaking amazing. You've opened my mind to a world of possibilities here.

But anywho, sure, yeah. I actually kinda like it here, all things considered. Free room and board, lots of new people to meet, and so far no one's tried to hold the planet hostage or anything. I don't know what everyone's always complaining about.

video

[runningstart]

Well, I mean. You're so old already, I'm not sure sixty years is a good idea for you. You'll be dust by then.

permavideo. id says barry allen.

[tardily]

Are you going to buy all the cartons up before any of us get a chance to?

[ There's so many other things he could say and yet he goes with that. Blame it on him legit wanting that ice cream now. Why put this food eating on the network. That's rude, Wally. ]

They all technically exist before they're discovered. The multiverses, not the cartons of ice cream. You just don't know about them or of them until you're in them or hear about them from someone who's been in them/seen them. But they exist with the people in them. You didn't just will them into existence through discovery.

[ Actually. No, now that he's thinking about it. ]

What if living here for that long would let you remember when you went back? I mean— it's easier to forget a few years than a few decades.

permavid.

[runningstart]

Uh no, they don't exist until they're discovered because- because Schrodinger, that's why.

I dunno, I didn't wanna make it too complicated. I guess it'd be weird if you're a sixty-year-old man in a ten-year-old's body. But you'd totally be really good at just about everything.

private video;

[cassassin]

[HI WALLY. She's just going to completely ignore the apparent subject at hand because it's painfully obvious what this is about.]

He'll be back. [She's trying to believe that, anyway. It's only been a few days.]

private video;

[runningstart]

[SIGH.] Yeah, well.

Maybe he shouldn't be back. He was wigging out here anyhow, this isn't a good place for him.

[maglevflash]

It's something to think about, isn't it?

[A pause.]

Where did you get the ice cream? After the weekend we've had, I think we both deserve a trashy diet.

[runningstart]

Mostly at Publix, but they have it at like Walmart and Albertsons too. My entire lifestyle is trash, join me. Revel in it with me.

audio;

[orangehoodie]

Even if it exists scientifically, if the person experiencing it can't perceive it, then it's that age-old question of does the tree make a sound when it falls if nobody's there to hear it?

I'm here but I have people from home who're from months ahead of me. To them before they came here and found me here, I might as well have never left. If I get ported out, even if the time here still technically exists, I'll forget and go back to being "whoever" I was, and will be, without the experiences here.

In the end... all we have is the "now," isn't it? Doesn't really matter.

audio;

[runningstart]

The tree doesn't make a sound though. Sound's just the direct result of an eardrum vibrating; even if the air molecules are displaced the same way, without sensory equipment -like an ear- then it's just air moving around.

So I mean, the 'now' doesn't count either. If we're gonna look at it on a macro scale. Two thousand years from now, this might not even be in any historical records. Maybe nobody'll ever know if either of us even existed. With that in mind, we could all totally burn down libraries and rob liquor stores since in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter.

...cept this ice cream matters. This party in my mouth matters a lot. So I guess you're right.

video

[booyahh]

I want to try that ice cream but I'm disgusted at the same time. I think I'm going to try it though.

[ She pauses for a moment and continues to keep the same amused expression she started the conversation off with. ]

What brought all of this on? Your deeping thinking I mean.

video

[runningstart]

I take offense to that. I think deeply all the time. I'm a very thoughtful person. [ding dong that is wrong]

video

[animalage]

Dude, was that thing full when you started? Did you just eat an entire cartoon of disgusting chip ice cream that fast?

Cause I think I'm impressed, but I'm not sure.

video

[runningstart]

...I cannot believe you called this ice cream disgusting.

You're fired.

video;

[earnedmystripes]

[That was a really long ramble, but here's Kotetsu ignoring most of it and being nosy with his dadly concern.]

....Uh, is--everything okay?

video;

[runningstart]

Everything's dandy. I got ice cream. I got chocolate syrup. What more could a man ask for?

video.

[glowsferatu]

[ what wally's talking about now is pretty much her jam, because this is stuff that's always mattered to her, that she's always kept close. except the ice cream, that sounds gross as hell.

but you can't be here as long as she has without thinking about just how much this life really matters. ]

Well, there is the question of what happens when this universe dies. What will keep from that, and who will still keep the memories of the time you spent here. I do think that...it's somewhat the responsibility of those of us who are left, and who have those memories, to protect and uphold them. Because sometimes that will be all you leave behind, what effect you had on those who remain.

[ she pauses, still thinking about his opening question. ]

I think, the longest I've heard of anyone being an imPort is six years, but I believe there are at least five who predate me. The majority will only have around eighteen months, at most. But it's interesting to consider, that before Lachesis possessed this Porter, imPorts were able to come and go as they please. We've heard of some who had remained for over twenty years.

What sort of lives must they have made for themselves, to remain for so long? Could they have made families, do you think?

video.

[runningstart]

[Wally halfheartedly glares at the camera for a few seconds. Does she not remember him from jail? Is she seriously trying to talk to him about the value of human life right now?

But he remembers what Jacob said, and honestly he's too tired to pick a fight right now.]

...yeah, sure. Why wouldn't they? If they don't think they're going home or they don't want to, what's wrong with having a life here?

[ Video ]

[enucleation]

It's interesting to think about; I think our presence here has consequences, at least in this universe. So it's proof we existed here,, even if we are gone.

People who have left are still remembered. Even if they don't remember existing here, they existed to us and the consequences of each of their actions are still happening here. It makes sense.

Re: [ Video ]

[runningstart]

What if everybody gets sent home and the US covers up imPort involvement? We could just turn into a throwaway line in a history book.

[heavyhitter]

haha u nerd
id stay here forever if i could go home long enough to take care of a couple things. after that im golden

[runningstart]

UR a nerd

what kind of things
is it a divorce so our marriage can be legit

Video

[beneathbluerafters]

... Truly, whoever created such a wonder was either a madman or a culinary genius.

[ For once, he sounds genuinely impressed! ]

Re: Video

[runningstart]

...

[nah no energy for a fight]

Yeah it's a pretty awesome idea. You should get some.

video;

[fridgeflower]

I think... If we could be assured of staying here and living out our natural lives, that wouldn't be bad. My world's not the safest. I guess there's no real assurance I'd make it much farther even if I do avoid my death du jour.

[ But yeah. ]

You're really into ice cream, huh?

Re: video;

[runningstart]

I'm really into eating on principle.

Y'know I used to think it was screwed up? That people wouldn't wanna go back home? Now I get it.

Voice

[liverletdie]

Six, actually. Coming up on seven, and it wasn't here, here, another place. So yeah, you could live an entire life here.

Re: Voice

[runningstart]

Oh, so YOU'RE the six-year guy, Mr. Stark. Have you ever gone back? Or gotten hitched?

video (D-D-D-DOUBLESLAM)

[foreshadower]

That looks disgusting.

[ A pause. ]

Did something bring this on?

permavid - private

[runningstart]

Bart and Robin went home. Bam bam, one right after another.

video

[glitchinthesystem]

[ His first thoughts are "wow that's a lot of chocolate syrup", the next is how gross it kind of with those weird chip things in it, lastly there's the whole "blah blah blah live a whole life here or something". Honestly, he doesn't pay too much attention to the long winded stuff.

More like the kid's face...and voice.

He's squinting at the screen, trying to place this guy. ]

....Your face looks familiar. Like...reaaaaaally familiar. [ Sorry, Wally, this is more important. ]

Re: video

[runningstart]

[great. THIS asshole.] I've got one of those faces I guess.

video;

[givetheslip]

[All this theorizing would give Maria a headache if she hadn't been considering precisely the same thing lately.]

The way you phrase it makes it sound cruel.

[Or maybe that's just her interpretation.]

permavideo;

[runningstart]

It does? How?

permavoice;

[nostalgiabomb]

Everything alright, West? You're stuffin' your face like you just had a bad breakup.

[runningstart]

I'm trying to divorce myself from reality but it's messy and she wants the house.

video

[hsalf]

[That's disgusting.

The thought of being here for a lifetime that is, not the ice cream. Though the chocolate syrup is a bit much.]

It's the question of "if a tree falls, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Logically we know sound is made when something falls to the ground, so our first instinct is to say yes. However, 'sound' is defined as the vibration of air that ears are able to catch and transmit to the brain. So if no one can hear that sound, who can really say it existed?

We can apply the same concept to people and the porters. It's called "observable reality" and it neatly ties into the multiverse concept. The empirical versus the theoretical.

[He pauses and his fingers loosely tug at one another, before he continues on with his train of thought.]

Observation is important in these cases. We know that there is a multiverse full of many possibilities, but we can only say for sure because we're actively observing it. Consequentially, we know that someone could spend a whole lifetime here. A person on the outside of that is unlikely to believe it without observable proof.

permavideo

[runningstart]

[No. Nooooo, nonono Wally doesn't want to deal with this right now. He should've expected it when he made this post, but he didn't and now he has a choice between ignoring Wells, answering Wells and pretending nothing is wrong, or answering Wells and letting him know that Wally knows exactly who he is.]

Y'know, an eleven year old used that analogy too. It doesn't really stick.

[Video]

[tactile_telekinesis]

I dunno whether to be grossed out, or curious about the ice cream. I'm leaning more to totally grossed out though.

I don't think I'd like to stay here for fifty or sixty years. It'd be hard to go home and leave the people I've gotten to know here, but...I'd kind of be happy going back. I mean, I have my family back there.

permavid

[runningstart]

Stick around for a few more months SB. It'll get harder to leave.

...especially since they don't have this flavor back home.

video;

[rockpun]

Oh yeah, I've had that stuff before. It's not bad, but sometimes you get stabbed right in the mouth. The risks we take for decadence.

[he looks different than what she expected, but there's no way she doesn't recognize Kid Flash's voice. or Wally, as he's going by now. probably not super good at keeping his secret identity secret.]

I like many-worlds myself, but I don't know a whole lot about multiverses. Just what I picked up after finding out it's real. The point is that you are sounding way too serious for someone who's eating ice cream that somebody with a late-night talk show probably helped make.

permavideo;

[runningstart]

[Oh it's that girl who didn't want to be a superhero.]

Y'know what, maybe this is just how I sleep-deprived ramble. Maybe serious is how it goes for me when I'm two cartons closer to a diabetic coma.

video.

[tsunderbolt]

... I'd answer, but all I can think about is how sick you're gonna be in, like, an hour.

[ Who can eat that much ice cream and not end up regretting it, cripes. ]

permavideo.

[runningstart]

I can guarantee you that I'm not gonna get sick at all. In fact-

[Wally turns and drags a package of Oreos out of the cabinets and starts munching down on those, two at a time.]

text; private

[infomodder]

Thanks for the ice cream recommendation. Have you ever seen Hackers? I found it for cheap a few days ago.

[One day there will be an indent of Wally's ass on the futon in the bait shop if this keeps up.]

To answer your question, yes and no. I have unfinished back home. But I also like it here, and have more than everything I could ever need. The idea of staying for a full lifetime and then going back sounds absolutely ideal.

permatext; private

[runningstart]

right its pretty much the best plan

life here life home
double the life half the responsibility