video.

[dissent]

[ It's late, and Anders is up on the surface, face lit occasionally by the rolling crackle of the sky. But he's not thinking about this strange place called Earth, his eyes distant. ]

Has anyone else met someone they... knew in their Matrix, but who was extracted from a different Matrix?

[ He's fumbling with the question, not sure how to ask what he wants to ask and not daring to voice what underlies it. ]

There are other versions of us still living their lives. It feels like I'm ...

[ A pause, and he decides not to follow up with whatever point he was planning, sighs instead, switches the feed off and tries to work out if there's some way to delete the recording from the network. ]

Comments

anon text;

[nightride]

i haven't.
who did you meet?

[dissent]

[ It takes a little while longer for Anders to respond to this than anything else, wary of spilling his heart to an anonymous stranger, but needing to find something to talk to. ]

Someone very important to me. He's exactly the same except in the ways that he's not.

[nightride]

what ways?

[After a short delay:]

specifics not necessary.

[Yeah, great. There's some instant phrasing regret. Beep boop, Driver the prying robot.]

[dissent]

I'm not quite sure how to explain without the specifics. It's entirely in the specifics.

[nightride]

what i meant was, i'm not trying to figure out who he is, or anything.

[There.]

it must be weird for you.

[dissent]

Everything here is weird for me. This is just taking slightly more adjustment.

The differences don't really matter to me, though. It's more the thought that up until a few months ago, the person he knew wasn't me.

[nightride]

yeah.

[Unexpectedly painful association. Abort, abort.]

[dissent]

[ Oh Drive Driver, you are an odd individual. ]