Permavid

[governorkang]

That was quite a jump. Last time I was sent home, it was for four years. This time, twenty-two.

[Physically, he doesn't look much different for twenty-two years going by. He just looks tired, and as if he has a headache. He does have a few new cloth and metal armbands, though, in varying degrees of workmanship.]

It sounded almost fantastical to me when I was told of my world's future before it happened. But, I believed the one who told me. It was too fantastical to be a lie, and after being dragged to an entirely new universe by a machine I never thought could possibly exist, it seemed rather tame in comparison.

[He shakes his head.]

Actually living it was... more interesting than I thought it would be. Perhaps that is only because at the time, my memories of ever being away from Krynn and forewarned were absent.

I doubt I'll ever understand all of this timeline and memory nonsense.

Comments

[resipiscent]

I think that might be the longest visit home I've heard of from anybody.

[He wonders whether Kang got to see his family when he went back -- but he doesn't want to tread on something that might turn out to be sensitive. Twenty-two years is a long time.]

[governorkang]

I won't complain, even with the mess things have become back home.

I have grandchildren, Riku.

[resipiscent]

Kang, that's awesome.

[He means it -- he looks pleased. For all his earlier hesitance he's going to go ahead and ask anyway.]

Did you get to see everyone, then?

[driftsintobuffetline]

So you went home, didn't remember this place, carried on business as usual, came back and remember again?

... Nothing whatsoever? No weird dreams, no faint memories, nothing unexplained like that?

[governorkang]

[He shakes his head.]

Nothing. It's as if you were never gone.

[driftsintobuffetline]

Do you think there's a way though, that we might actually preserve those memories to take with us? Because they're obviously retained, either dormant in your own head or...I don't know! Maybe stored here somehow for your return? Maybe inherent in the nanites. Can nanites store memory-data and ...reinstall it or something?

Speaking of, how's...everything? Did injuries revert? Did you ship home with some of the nanite healing or did you lose it and regain it like the memories when you came back here, or lose the healing entirely even when you came back?

[governorkang]

I certainly hope there is a way. Teyr could prosper for centuries with the knowledge I've obtained, and I would like to remember some of the people I've met.

[He pauses to think, and makes a fist with his right hand.]

The amount of healing that happened is so minor I can't tell if it was ever lost. It seems to be the way it was before going home, though.

video.

[glowsferatu]

You know, for having left for longer than I've been alive, you don't look like you've aged a day. Wouldn't it be novel to reach that point in my own life.

[ She shrugs, realizing with a frown how youthfully obnoxious that might have sounded. ]

Still, it is funny how that often works. The happy endings are more difficult to believe, until you see them for yourself.

[governorkang]

Twenty-two years is not long for my kind.

I'm not sure I'd call it a happy ending. It's left a mess behind that I will have to clean up.

[glowsferatu]

It wouldn't really be for mine either, in the long run. But it will always seem longer when one is still young. If I were to live another eighty years, I might be able to shrug it off.

So, fantastical, but not quite happy? What sort of mess was it?

[governorkang]

There is some happiness. My children are grown and most have children of their own.

Wars always complicate things, though. In the end, our world was returned to its rightful plane and the gods returned, but in the process, one is now dead and another is mortal. My nation has had its most valuable export disappear, leaving us to find a new one. Because of our actions during the war, many of the nations that once refused to treat with us are now quite interested in trade agreements and possible alliances. Those same actions, however, have contributed to a very real threat of civil war among my people.

[He shakes his head and sighs.]

A fine mess indeed.

[glowsferatu]

So, in the frankest terms possible, it's a bit of a clusterfuck.

Is this a war that's ongoing, or are you working to sort out the aftermath?

[governorkang]

I think a bit is an understatement.

The war itself has been over for less than a year.

[glowsferatu]

So, you've been imPorted from the end of one to the beginning of another. What joyous circumstances.

[governorkang]

Yes, I'm overjoyed to be thrown against my will into a childish war between two powers that see me as nothing more than a weapon.

[glowsferatu]

Well, let's be fair. One side explicitly views us only as weapons. The other is frequently accused of viewing us only as weapons, despite two years of primarily treating us otherwise.