un: junpei | video

[coolerjunpei]

[The video opens on Junpei in an office chair - in his Secret Club Meeting Room (read: generic office building conference room) although this is not a secret meeting. This is Junpei spinning slowly in an office chair while he holds the camera up, tilting as far back as he can without tipping the chair over. So it's going great.]

So, city-zens, [.....ahem,] I've got some miscellaneous questions for you.

First, time travel: real? Let me know. [......,] I mean, you know— Before you got here, that is. Like how experienced are you in the realm of quantum... quantum-y goodness? I just thought that maybe it would be real for somebody else by now, but I dunno... Let me know that one instead.

[Cough. Anyway.]

Second, are we all just, uh... hanging out now, I guess? Um, like— who's trying to clip through the weird fog and get out still? Anybody? I'm looking for group, or whatever you call it. We can do code names.

[Junpei is not a gamer.... don't believe this... he's just cringe and thinking about half-press-A-ing through the universe, to wit as he spins faster in his chair:]

Third, whoooo's all in for simulation theory? [as dryly as possible, womp...] Eh? Woooo yeah... simulation theory...!

[The video tilts as he lets go with one hand to hold up... a pinched-fingers hand puppet 🤌... it's still fine, he's doing great. He pitches his voice up higher for the puppet, because of course he does:]

But Junpei, how is this a simulation? Well duh, why else would this place be like a city that doesn't know what a city is supposed to be like? And all the weird loading fog? C'mon! Buuuut Juuuunpei, are we all full of tubes and stuck in goo pods like in that movie?— [Ah, ahem, cough. He puts his hand down.] Maybe.

Or uh, whatever else is in the theory pile. Half the people I was messing around with about theories went and disappeared, soooo... Well, I'm gonna get serious cabin fever if I can't figure something oUT—

[Local Man Tips The Chair Over and Totally Wipes Out, stay tuned for updates. The video ends when the phone drops face down onto the floor, bye.......]

Comments

[coolerjunpei]

A thousand years? Gross. Oldest guy I ever met was only a little over a hundred, and he already looked like a fucked up raisin.

[ha. anyway.]

If we're going to talk about free will, then that depends. From what I've seen, you can change a lot, but it really just makes a new history based on different choices. So if the other version of you in some other history still did the first thing, is that really "changed"? Or just "abandoned"?

[unimportant]

Very gross.

[ fucked up raisin is about right, with multiple eyes at that. but anyway- ]

It's normal for people to think what their life could be if they made a different decision here and there. But the only life you can perceive is the one you've lived, so you'll never know what could have been. If a new history is made with every choice, then there are infinite histories all interconnecting from billions of people living a shared existence.

But using the word "abandoned" makes it sound dire! I don't like the idea of a bunch of me's getting into bad spots she can't escape from.

[coolerjunpei]

That's about the gist of it, yeah. At least from what I've managed to understand, which isn't too much.

[Something something the histories God abandoned, something. Ironically going from hopping around multiple histories like it was nothing to being stuck in this one has made him think about the multiverse more seriously than before. Who knew.]

Anyway, isn't it dire? I mean, if you never know about it, I guess it doesn't technically matter... Still, if you don't know what could have been, that's different, right?

[unimportant]

Hm... I think I would prefer to never know. If I don't know what could have happened to me in other realities, then I can live my life a lot simpler. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

What about you? Would you prefer to know what happened in all those histories?

[coolerjunpei]

No. [That's instantaneous, and then after a bit more proper thought,] I can't just back out now, you know? But you're right about things being simpler when you don't know.

[unimportant]

I am? [ She appreciates the agreement, but it doesn't sound like he means it as an opinion the way she did. He responded so quickly too. ] Do you know something I don't, Junpei-kun?

[coolerjunpei]

[He raises a hand for the most half-assed, unenthusiastic jazz hand ever done.]

Well, duh. I'm the time traveler here. As soon as somebody tells you how some other history goes for you and everyone else, you never really stop thinking about it.

[unimportant]

I'm sorry about that. [ Not that it must mean much, or that he hasn't maybe heard similar sympathetic words. It sounds like an awful situation to be in. ] I hope you don't mind my curiosity, but do you know how the road ends for you? By that, I mean your death.

[coolerjunpei]

For this history? Nah. I'm in the loop, but only sometimes. [ha ha timeloops jokes. anyway.] I've, uh... sort of absorbed the memories from other histories, though? Ones that get pretty gory.

But I can't see the future, or anything.