Music and Musings

[nomen_est_numen]

[Action]

It's a lovely day again. It's always on these nice sunny days that Shen can be seen out and about. To-day, for example, he can be found at the local music store. What's he doing there, one might ask? Whatever it is, he knows what he's after.

[Video]

There's something different about Shen. Is he... shinier? His plumage brighter? Does he look oddly sleek? Yes, actually. After spending several days a distracted, ruffled mess, he's apparently gone and done one heckuva preening. Or, rather, had it done, as he may have been spotted in the vicinity of a little niche place called 'Wingummy Thingummy Avian Salon.' Clearly, he's a new bird, now. He settles in front of the phone that he'd propped up against something and sighs. "I've been thinking recently," he murmurs. "My past is... very much in the past, it seems--everything seems to indicate that my home existed sometime in the fifth century." He grows contemplative. "I very much doubt I'll be able to return, so... I suppose I should try to make a home here." He runs a wing over his feather crest a little wearily and while it springs back up in a perfectly healthy manner, he himself still looks distracted. "Has anyone else found out that their home is in the past?"

((1% or so spent remembering how to play the lute))

Comments

[very_model_of]

Not sure I follow. All I know suggests time travel is impossibility.

[nomen_est_numen]

To his credit, Shen is not fazed in the slightest at his first sight of the salarian.

"Losing all of one's memories in this fashion should be impossible, as well, though," he answers thoughtfully.

[very_model_of]

Well why would he? This is a very multicultural galaxy we live in.

"Not impossible. Tailored neuroreceptor inhibitor targetting memory, invasive surgery, blunt trauma. Plenty of ways to effect memory of living beings."

After a bit of thought he added, "Still working on anemoi."

[nomen_est_numen]

"Yes, but for this to happen to everyone the same way? I've heard that this memory loss is caused by some gods or other." Shen's all for logic but since coming here he's seen said logic pounded flat repeatedly.

[very_model_of]

"Difficult, yes. Multiple individuals have different kind of neural architecture. Multiple species. Some may not have neural architecture. Not impossible."

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen rubs his brow. "Then... how would you explain it? Why are my memories all of things found in the fifth century? Why am I so baffled by what everyone else takes for granted?"

[very_model_of]

Mordin rubbed his chin. "Probably from less developed planet. Also possibly indicitive of greater memory damage. Basic skills degraded as well as active memory."

[nomen_est_numen]

There is no bzuh face icon owrthy of depicting the bzuh face he has now.

"...Planet? Greater memory damage...? And that is more plausible than travelling in time?"

[very_model_of]

"Yes. Definitely."

[nomen_est_numen]

This is quite possibly giving Shen a headache. He rubs his brow with a soft, pained sound. "Would another planet be easier to return to?"

[very_model_of]

Ah yes. The one problem.

"Not without some sort of ship, no."

[nomen_est_numen]

"... Then how did I get here?"

[very_model_of]

"Probably sedated, transported. Then the ship simply left without you. Or me, I supposed."

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen shakes his head, making another pained sound. "To what end?"

[very_model_of]

"Hard to say. Reason for captivity in the first place still remains a mystery."

[trustycrowbar]

In the past? [His eyes seem to unfocus for an instant, but just as soon as it's there it's gone as he fidgets with his glasses.]

No. I can't say I did. Time is a relative thing anyway, Shen, I'd imagine especially here.

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen's brows meet and... those are quite the brows. "Relative?" he echoes confusedly, shaking his head. "I don't understand."

[trustycrowbar]

Oh boy. How does he explain it?

"Some people are referring to the places they come from as 'worlds'. Now to ME, and this is just a theory, but that means several completely different universes due to interactions of branes across the span of the bulk, coming to a rare omega-point intersection right here at--"

Whoa whoa wait, dammit, gotta take it down a notch. "--uh... that these worlds are connected here somehow. This is basically the knot that ties all those other worlds together. The era in your world might not be the same era as the one here, but they can still coincide."

[nomen_est_numen]

Yyyyeeeaaaah, Shen's eyes were glazing over, there. He's not a stupid bird by any stretch of the imagination but that kind of physics jargon is another bloody language to him.

"... I'd already deduced that your fifth century China is different to what I know. For one, it's populated entirely with humans."

[trustycrowbar]

He tries to reign it in. Really. Sometimes he can't help it. Believe it or not he was probably the LEAST pedantic man on the team where he used to work... not that he knows anything about that yet.

"Thaaaat's a big divergence point, yeah." Obviously that'd occurred to him but he didn't think it was polite to say anything...

"So that's already two distinct variants on a single culture... or rather, two variant worlds that somehow developed the same culture. I can't even begin to figure the odds against that... uh, anyway, my point is that you shouldn't assume it was time you were traveling through.

[nomen_est_numen]

"What else would it have been?" You have utterly lost him.

[trustycrowbar]

"Traveling between worlds. Dimensions. Whatever you want to call them. My point is that it may still very well be... whatever century it was, over there."

This attempt at assuaging him isn't going too well, is it?

[nomen_est_numen]

Nnnnot really. It's giving him a headache, as well. He rubs his brow with a soft pained sound. "Would that make returning home more difficult or less difficult?"