text/video; un: silverrose

[fionnuisce]

Okay, we've well established twice now since I've been here that Zodiac's public relations are abject shit.

I don't know if I can help anyone who might need it after the latest shitshow, but I can try. Attached is a brief summation of my professional opinion on Zodiac's statement on past lives as well as an explanation of parallel timelines as I understand them--the same principle may well not apply in every other universe, for all I know. If you'd prefer not to listen to a mage talk his head off about arcane concepts, then feel free to ignore this; I've included it as a video file for precisely that reason.

Otherwise, the half-baked class of Lord El-Melloi II is in session.

[The attached video displays a man in his late 20s, hair tied back and sunglasses sitting on his head as he lights a cigarette. Anyone around Kaisou University has probably seen him around, or at least heard him coming--the cane isn't very inconspicuous. One might wonder how he's holding the phone a couple feet away with both hands occupied, but the faint glow of a thin wire coming from somewhere around his right wrist might have something to do with that.]

Let me cut straight to the point. 'Is Zodiac's statement plausible?' I'm sorry to say that it is, however- [He stressed that word pointedly, green eyes focused sharply on the camera.] -there may be--no, there absolutely is more to the picture we have yet to see. I recognize that the idea is...alarming, to say the very least. And I don't know if anything I can offer will be of help in that regard. So I want to give clarity the only way I can, and leave myself open to whatever questions are within my ability to answer. Which may not be many, but it's worth a shot.

[He sighed a faint cloud of smoke, thinking for a few seconds before continuing.]

'Those lives or those worlds ended in some fashion', they said. This does not immediately necessitate that one's past life met with a sudden dire end or that the world one remembers was subject to the same. Such is only a possibility, one of countless such paths. In my world, timelines are known to diverge like branches from a tree. [He gestured vaguely with one hand, lit cigarette leaving a thin trail in the air.] I am not a scholar of this specific field, but I make a habit of studying things I probably shouldn't. As such, I only know that sometimes, these branches do necessitate...'pruning' is the term, though that sounds a little too harsh given the subject at hand. But such a thing is only for the most distantly divergent from baseline--that is to say, I would assume that for every one of those exist an unknowable number which yet continue.

All this to say: the statistical probability that the worlds you remember are gone is-- [He paused briefly, a trace of concern on his face before he shook it off in favor of professionalism. (Sorry, Elliot.)] --so small as to be impossible to measure. The probability that the lives you bear memory of ended abruptly or violently...while I see no reason to assume the worst, that is not something I can measure. I have no doubt that countless iterations of me have died or worse; that's down to what kind of people you were or are.

[he is extremely wrong, but he's got the spirit]

...And if I can be perfectly honest, I think that needs to be the priority above all else. To understand one's self is already a daunting task; to reconcile it with the knowledge of who one may have been, I can't even begin to imagine how insurmountable a task that must appear to be. I don't envy any of you, and I can only offer very little in the way of help.

I wish you luck in discovering what you will, strength to contend with whoever you were, and resolve to determine who you are.

Comments

[fionnuisce]

Either of those does sound plausible. There's no reason such an event wouldn't itself cause an offshoot, but there's also nothing I can think of to argue that it definitely would.

[crystallinememories]

I do also know that in the world I am 'from', the flow of time is different between worlds and it's rather inconsistent. It is entirely possible that that would not apply outside of that universe, but I am inclined to view this all more from that perspective. Though, that could just be wishful thinking as well.

[fionnuisce]

It's sensible to view it in terms we understand. As I said, I'm no scholar of Second Magic--a lot of this is conjecture on my own part. I haven't the faintest idea whether time flows the same or differently along parallel worlds, or if time even matters in any sense when viewing the whole metaphorical tree from outside of it.

[crystallinememories]

Unfortunately, it is likely impossible to know for certain. Time seems to flow roughly equally in most of the gates, but they only arrive when they're so closely aligned with this world as to cross over... at least, to the best of my understanding.

There may be some way to look into it, at least. I'll think on.

[fionnuisce]

For now, it very well may be true that none of us have enough information to make a clear conclusion. Which is unfortunate, but unavoidable. There's nothing for it but to continue observing and scratch together what little objective knowledge we can.