(Network) awake from blood-thick dreams

[hooliganstatus]

I'm seeing a lot of people apologizing for what they did while we were in the city.

What if what you suddenly feel guilty about is older than that? If no one is here to apologize to?

Comments

[mrsklover]

Richie had to think about that before answering. "Eddie and I are used to things being fucking weird for us. But this is... this is something else. Not to mention the fact that the time I'm from, he's dead. Got killed right in front of me. He was grabbed just before that so... Yeah. That was also a rough conversation. Knowing you're only still alive as long as you're here? The minute you go back you're gonna get skewered?"

Richie's whole face went dark with that memory. Even with Eddie alive here he is grieved just thinking about the past. It still hurts as bad now as it did then.

"It's all just. A lot."

cw: death and related cloning

[hooliganstatus]

"That's terrible," she acknowledged, taking another drink - a deeper one, as she was reminded of how many times death had come for her. She didn't remember all of them directly, just faint echoes that haunted her dreams sometimes, but ... it was enough.

"I take it where you're from, there's no system in place to revive him, or ... replace his body?"

[mrsklover]

"I'm sorry, what?"

He blinked at Aeon for a moment, surprised by the question. When he finally let it compute, Richie just shook his head mutely. God, where did all of these people come from? He definitely had gotten the boring Earth.

"No. No, unfortunately. You... Where you're from they can do that? Revive people? Or just...swap bodies?"

[hooliganstatus]

"It's ... not quite a swap. I don't know exactly how it works, I just know that it's a system the Monicans have had in place for -" For how long, exactly? She wasn't sure. How many times had they brought her back? When was the first? Everything was fuzzy, like trying to remember your first steps, or the first book someone ever read to you. "- quite a while. They keep our DNA stored in a secure facility called The Relical, and when someone dies, their DNA gets recycled. Cloned again. You wake up just like it's a new day, and usually they take the memories of how you died. You just ... remember up to a certain point, then nothing. It keeps the people that have been brought back a lot from - oh."

The drink was starting to make her warm, and she pressed her hands to her cheeks.

"From losing their minds."

[mrsklover]

Richie couldn't help but laugh. Not because it was particularly funny but because the combination of Aeon getting drunk and the frankly fucked up shit she was talking about was wild. He shook his head and held his hands up to show he didn't mean offense.

"I'm not...That is really rough. Sorry. I just. Man. That is some way to live. Reminds me of that whole like...existential riddle about a transporter. Like if they copy you exactly and destroy one copy to make another in another place, did you die and your clone live on?" He shuddered and finished his drink in one gulp.

"Hate that shit. I can see why people would lose their minds over it."