tushanshu | [Video]

[the screen turns on to reveal Carlos in his ever-present lab coat, pushing his glasses up his nose as he nervously grins at the screen]

I believe this is the point where introductions are in order, so...my name is Carlos and I am a scientist. I am not of this world, but from what I have been told neither are any of you. I'll need to run some surveys on that later - scientifically speaking, other worlds are very exciting. I mean, I'm here in a world where an entire city can be built on the back of a giant turtle the size of - well I don't know what size yet, I'll need to run some tests, or maybe just find an accurate map - but it's got to be at least the size of Rhode Island! There are just so many rules of physics that this thing must be breaking! Like, how does a turtle that large even float? And that's just in this world, I can't even begin to hypothesise about what else might be...

[Carlos coughs, suddenly remembering that this is actually the time for introductions, and figuring out what on earth (or in this case, what on turtle) he is meant to be doing next, and not time for Science]

Um. Yes. But I can figure that all out later, I'll need time to organise a proper survey questionnaire anyway. In the meantime - this is me, hello [Carlos waves quickly], and I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me where to get food, groceries, that sort of thing. Also is all of this [Carlos waves around him to indicate the place he's been set up in] something paid for, or am I going to need to pay this all back? I meant to ask, but I kind of got distracted with all of my questions about the turtle.

Also I...I realise this is a long shot, but the last otherworldly universe I got stuck in had this fantastic wifi, and I didn't have to worry about my phone's battery dying either. Which meant being stuck in a desert that was not of this world wasn't so bad, because I could still ring home. That...that's not going to be possible here, is it? I mean, obviously if time is not passing in my world then there is no time in which anyone will be able to answer the phone, but I...I just thought I'd check. Just in case.

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[He tries to remember if he ever mentioned anything that could help pinpoint an specific point in time, but he comes up with a blank.] I think your relationship was pretty recent, in his point in time. A month or two? But other than that I'm afraid I can't be more specific, he was... [He makes a face] He has a tendency to go off the tangent, that boyfriend of yours. It's hard to get him to answer specific questions.

What do you mean, time is not real? He did mention something like that as well.

A month? We've been dating for a whole year now, why...why wouldn't he tell me? He knows that I'd want to know, I mean, other universes? A city on the back of a turtle? That's exactly the sort of thing I'd want to know! Why would he just...not mention that? At all?

[No, Carlos is not upset. Nope. Not at all. Okay, maybe a bit. Okay, maybe a lot. But he takes a deep breath, because he can't be being upset about Cecil keeping things from him when he has Science to explain]

Time is just a concept that we perceive, the way in which we construct now from then from will be, when in reality all we have is now. Then is gone; it does not exist except in our own memories and perceptions, while will be is just what we assume our now will become.

[He shakes his head] He wasn't hiding it from you, he probably didn't remember. I have met people who are from further in time than I am, they have told me about my future... and it hasn't changed anything. Using your own explanation, the time in the turtle is 'now', but as soon as you step out the turtle and back home- as soon as your 'soul' or energy or whatever you want to call it goes back home, this now disappears. As if it never had happened. As if there had never been a then. I've been trying to find a way to keep our memories of this place when we go back home but so far it seems impossible.

Have you been told about the clone theory yet?

So our memories from here don't go back to our own worlds? Are we even really here then? Do we really go back?

No, but I think I can make a reasonable hypothesis. Actually it makes a lot of sense! We're clones! Alternate versions of ourselves, with memories and everything! Oh wow, that is amazing! Do you now how they do it? Do you think they'll let me see? And...

...oh.

If I'm a clone, I'm not really me, am I? And I'm not going home, because the real me is already there.

Yes, and no. We found some cloning facilities, in the past, and recently we've pretty much been told our bodies are indeed cloned. Some DNA tests have been run on people who had samples from their DNA back home, and it's identical except from some little failures- which is probably what ends up making our bodies fail and be sent back home in the end. [Like Lois, so recently.]

But our energy, who we really are? That's definitely us. So it's not as much that we're clones, as that we are inhabiting a cloned body while we're here. And when we go back home, our 'energy'- some people call it soul, others chi, but I doubt those terms will work for someone like you- goes back to our body.

Our body, on the exact moment it left. That's probably why we lose all our memories.

Are the results for these tests still available? I'd like to read them, this all sounds very interesting.

But how do you know that our...energy, or essence, or whatever you call it, is really us? Has anyone been able to prove it? Is there evidence? Not that it's not possible, but without any kind of proof then it's only a hypothesis, not a theory. But if correct it would explain the lack of memories, as the brain patterns that make up those memories would only exist here, in this universe.

They probably are somewhere, but I don't have access to them. You'd do well asking in Wayne or Stark industries, they handle most of the science and tests nowadays. [Which sounds right up his alley.]

Well... I guess 'they told us it was us' isn't much of a proof. The spell is supposed to bring the energy from our world at one specific point in time into the new body and bring it back at exactly that point in time. The late Emperor Eshai promised me she would look into a way to keep our memories, so it should at least be possible.

That sounds perfect, do you know where I can find them? Even if they don't have the specific data I'm looking for, it sounds like they'd be a very good resource.

Hmm. If no one's tested it yet, we'll have to find a way to do so. The, uh - Emperor? - might believe that that's what happens, but without any evidence we have no way of knowing if she's right.

Sure. They can always use more minds to help out, I think. [He was already planing to do that anyway, so now Carlos gets two location pings on the console to show where each enterprise is.]

And was, Eshai was. She was... she was killed by one of the foreigners a couple months ago. The new Emperor [And yes, the title is apparently the same for men and women] Evandau has far too many things on his plate right now to worry about memories.

Ah, thank you. [Carlos takes note of those two points - he'll have to remember to check the both of them out]

Oh...I'm sorry? [not knowing anything really about either Emperor, Carlos has no idea what the appropriate response is.] Um. Was she a good Emperor?

She was a soldier. She was pretty much forced into a role she did not want, and she admitted it. But she was... she cared deeply about the turtle and the Kedan, and was willing to go to incredible lengths to protect them. She really did her best.

Our best is, scientifically speaking, the most that any of us can do.

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