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[athousandcurses]

I know that we are here voluntarily, and as such this may seem like an odd question to ask...

How do you adjust to not only come from a different planet, but a universe where everything is different? Does it make you happy or do you feel ever more homesick? I have heard it said that something familiar changed only a bit can be more unsettling than something completely alien.

Comments

[ewestmarch]

Everything I'd miss I brought with me.

[athousandcurses]

There is no one who you left behind?

[It's said with curiosity, but only that.]

[ewestmarch]

Hell no.

[athousandcurses]

No attachments make it easier?

[ewestmarch]

Every time.

[most_feared]

Havin' trouble settling in?

I've had to help out with stuff like that back home. Might be able to, here.

[athousandcurses]

Oh, it's not that... I was merely thinking on some matters.

[most_feared]

What's the trouble?

[athousandcurses]

[Considering for a moment, Grainne is still. Running through the responses she could make, the consequences. In the end it is her caution and the unwillingness to admit what happened won out.]

No trouble. I like it here. I am just wondering if that is fair to the world I left...

[vengeance_driven]

I guess I just roll with it. As long as it ain't killing me everything is okay.

[athousandcurses]

[Grainne smiles a bit.]

That is a brave view of the world.

[vengeance_driven]

It's not so much brave as necessary. I miss my home a lot, but things there changed. They're ruined now. There's nothing you can do about change, so you go with it.

It's lucky if it is a change that makes you happy, but doesn't really hurt things.

[athousandcurses]

Ah... I meant it is brave because every day that passes is a day closer to inevitability. You remain cheerful no matter what happens, don't you?

[But the rest has her attention. She leans forward slightly, propping her chin on a hand.]

How did it become ruined?

[domesheriff]

[Linda isn't really sure how to take the young woman's question, but she figures it's a good opportunity to meet someone else who sounds new, so she turns on her own video feed]

Hey. Are you new here, too? It's...definitely a lot to get used to.

[athousandcurses]

New? Oh no, I've been here several months, but I will agree with that. It can be a difficult adjustment no matter how many times you do it.

[domesheriff]

Oh. [she's surprised; she thought Grainne meant that she's having trouble adjusting] You sound like you move around a lot.

[not wanting to be rude, she adds:] I'm Linda. I got here about two weeks ago, so I'm still..adjusting.

[athousandcurses]

Yes, you could say that. More out of necessity than wish.

[Grainne nods once.]

It is nice to meet you, Linda. Are you doing all right?

[una_persson]

I'd have to agree. The subtle changes are often the most troubling. It's one thing to go from a world with no dragons to one that has them everywhere, for instance. It's another altogether to discover the new parallel is like your own, but with a different twist to its history.

[athousandcurses]

[Grainne nods, a bit of relief in the motion.]

That is the one I have encountered more often. With different versions of the people I knew.

[una_persson]

[A sympathetic look. Una knows that sort of situation well. Then the slightest of double-takes.]

More often? You've had that happen before, then?

[athousandcurses]

Ah... I... have traveled a few times between universes. Not always by choice. The people are the most difficult to process.

[A slight pause.]

Some people are impossible to do so.

[timesbureaucrat]

I've had a great deal of experience hopping across universes lately, enough experience to simply be grateful that no one wanted to kill me within ten microspans of arrival.

But for the specifics, this world is nothing like my home planet. It's familiar only in that it's similar to places I've visited, but nothing about it reminds me of home.

[athousandcurses]

Has it been that difficult traveling universes for you? I've only experienced one that was that hostile...

Not even the vegetation? [She hums a little, softly.]

[timesbureaucrat]

I've travelled to four other universes before I came here. Each was a alternate version of my own planet, and each very unpleasant.

For me, that was closer to what you describe, the familiar mixed with the strange. They looked like home but the culture of the place was vastly different.

On Gallifrey the grass is red and the trees are silver.

[athousandcurses]

It is very unsettling when it is so close. I think the worst ones are the nightmarish landscapes of the city you live in when a catastrophe occurred in a parallel world.

So this planet is very alien to you, then. It is odd, but all of the places I have been, the grass is green or dead.