text; | @poison

[writtendestiny]

[A few conversations have led her to mulling more on this than she would do normally. Maybe it's the lack of having to fight for her life constantly, or certain questions she's been asked, but...]

Is there a way to find out if you're a clone? Does it matter if you are?

Does it mean you're worth less?

Comments

[writtendestiny]

... Yes.

This is the third universe I've been to.

→ private

[superposition]

I see.

[ Oof. The thing is - he knows the feeling. Sure, probably everybody who gets stuck in a jamjar does, to some extent, but Qubit's spent close to a third of his life jaunting back and forth between dimensions with all the care of a thrill-seeking twenty-something European backpacker (which, in fairness, he basically was). And he has gotten himself lost or stranded on more occasions than he likes to admit. His experience might actually be useful to her.

It's just difficult to overcome his Cagey Bastard instincts and tell anyone anything whatsoever. You know how it is.

He does want to help her, though. She's a good kid. So finally, he bites the bullet and goes for it. That part of his life isn't particularly classified, but he tends to talk only about the fun parts and leave out the difficult or emotional or formative ones. He makes it private just in case. ]

I won't say I know the feeling precisely, that's too subjective. But I've been in similar circumstances myself, even before this particular jaunt.

[writtendestiny]

[She just wants to go home, and the desperation to find her way back there only increases each time she fails to make it. Each time she ends up somewhere like this.]

You have?
Would you tell me about it?

[Poison assumes he intends to, given the sudden shift to a private conversation.]

[superposition]

[ Poison has read his intentions correctly! He just needs a minute to pick out a suitable anecdote. Some aren't really applicable, others would be a little too soul-baring, but... ]

Certainly.

I may not have mentioned this before, but back home, I'm the inventor of quantum teleportation. And to answer your next question, no, my existing methods don't work here, unfortunately. Local spacetime's far too unstable. Still working on that, when I have the time. [ aka rarely. ]

Anyway. Essentially, this allowed me to hop between dimensions on a whim, and like any young man with delusions of invincibility, I made use of that gift incredibly recklessly. [ Age and experience have made him, uh... slightly less reckless? You should have seen him before, he was absolutely insufferable. ] But I was lucky, and more importantly clever, so every scrape I got myself into, I could improvise my way out of. Even if my jumpgate were completely destroyed, I had my power to fall back on - I could simply fashion a new one out of garbage.

However, when I arrived on Thexeter, my luck ran out. You see, Thexeter was a planet rich in magic, but extremely primitive technologically. The only materials I could actually use were those I brought with me - and within minutes of my arrival, they'd all been confiscated.

[writtendestiny]

[So maybe she's making a couple of notes to look into or ask about later.

'Quantum teleportation'.]

That's unfortunate.
But it sounds like the kind of world I come from. And the same thing might have happened to you there.

What did you do then?

[superposition]

[ She's from a sword-and-sorcery sort of place, then? He might already know that, idk. Anyway- ]

Well, I had to get them back, of course. But in no time at all, they were being passed around the upper echelons of Thexeteri society as exotic curiosities - as was I, for a time. Not my proudest moment.

[ Yeah he totally got captured. And he was an alien to them, after all, so he had some novelty value in and of himself. It was not the first or last time something like that happened. ]

I escaped with the aid of a young woman called Sa'a, who put me in contact with the insurgency she was a part of - I won't get too deep into the politics, but in essence their goal was to topple the regime and install their own head of state. We didn't see eye to eye on a number of things, chiefly the fact that they were terrorists, but they were the only group really capable of helping me. So if I ever wanted to see my homeworld again, I'd have no choice but to aid and abet them in return.

[writtendestiny]

[He's starting to lose her a bit, here... Good thing it's all being written down. She reads it over a few times to let it all sink in.]

Is that what they call being stuck between a rock and a hard place?