video ==> text

[overthroen]

[ The video image flickers to life, but only briefly. Through copious static and frequent blackouts, one may glimpse a young girl with blonde hair, its brightness broken by a purple headband that matches her pajamas. She seems shaken, but not confused - she's not struggling with this technology, nor does she have a bad connection. Something else is

Comments

[crowstuck]

i know other me fell all over himself to say this already but
sup
sounds like you got a good handle on this farce already

[overthroen]

I had missed relaying the same information to Strider twice.
Good to see you again, Feathery Dave.
I am about as far away from pirouetting off of this handle as a trapeze artist with superglue on his hands.
The fragility of the trapeze ropes may cause the handle to let me go at some point, though.
And so my investigation of all there is to know here.

[crowstuck]

nah that handles not made of glass i think youll be fine as long as you dont expect to get any actual answers to what you want to know
like howd we really get here
how do we get back
trivial things that dont really matter

[overthroen]

I've already deduced that the answer to at least one of those questions doesn't exist.
Yet.
I'll be honest: many seem to leave after a given period of time of their own accord.
But many don't. I can't take that risk.
What's more, every day more are imported. The outcasts will reach critical mass soon, and the general populace seems none to happy about that prospect.
Stopping the imports is important, as much as finding a way out is.

[crowstuck]

ok just how long have you actually been here

[overthroen]

Marginally less time than yourself, I believe. A number of weeks.
I've had a lot of time on my hands. And it's difficult to forget everything happening back home. So I search.
I'm beginning to greatly sympathize with my doomed self. This feels like a similar sort of limbo.

[crowstuck]

no that sounds like you arrived around the same time dave and i did
they didnt tell us you were here though
just the rose from my timeline

[He doesn't want to say she has no idea just how bad that timeline was, that anything was better than that. He's not going to be that kind of asshole to her. She hasn't said anything but a stupid offhand remark.]

Text ==> Private text

[overthroen]

Intentions of visitations to fellow universemates fell by the wayside, I'm afraid, in my time extensively researching this universe's unique qualities, and experimenting with my own capabilities one universe removed from the Gods of the Furthest Ring.
When I get back from Seattle, I'll come to greet you personally.

[ Private ]
I haven't spoken with the other me, much.
On the surface, she's no different from myself. But anyone with a brain can tell she is. Especially in the archives.
I don't know if it's the time she spent in your timeline, or the time she's spent here. Probably both.
[ Doomed Rose is... a little frightening. Not that Rose would admit this. And she's been frightening, herself. ]

[crowstuck]

shes different from you the same way im different from dave
you just have to roll with it
youre still both rose timelines aside unless one of you concedes and i dont see that happening

[overthroen]

I have no doubt.
I know it can't be an easy subject, but I'd be interested to know what happened to you both.

[crowstuck]

we played the game just like you guys did
as far as we could
thats all rose

[overthroen]

That must have gotten monotonous after a while.
I assume the game gets more difficult, but does it actually throw any radically new factors in by that point?

[crowstuck]

thats a weird question
the game comes in phases and you guys didnt get very far in yours and we couldnt exactly complete ours the way we should have
what with
yeah
but they were never supposed to be complete surprises thats the point of having sprites in the first place
to cagily lead you to where you were supposed to be to solve the puzzle
and how you wanted to do that is kind of up to you i guess
like we were to tell you what the objectives were coded in the mythologies of the game and you would figure it out and get it done
throw in a couple of sidequests and thats basically it

[overthroen]

It's been a great deal of time since I actually stuck to whatever shoddy excuse for a point the game ever had.
I guess the Ultimate Riddle never really interested me.

[crowstuck]

its a pretty shitty riddle
almost as shitty as your trust the fucking undulating psycho denizens of deep space plan

[overthroen]

Trust in a game written by a faceless corporation, if its creation was even that organized, is shakier than trust in otherworldly trapped beings, however hideous their respective visages.
...Wait, do you know the Riddle?