💭 video; @b.potts

[tutee]

[ The video opens on a small silver canister, one of the update canisters that came to Bill from the Portal HQ. She keeps the camera steady, narrating over it, ] Inside this can are my memories... Well, my future memories. My future.

[ She turns the camera around, showing herself looking uncertain. ]

I open that, and I'll change. I'll remember new things, I'll age. I don't know how far into my future it goes. I've been to the future, just... never my own.

I suppose my question is... [ She switches the camera around, back to the canister. ] ...Do I open it?

Comments

audio, @chronicler

[scholiast]

(Is she the right person to be advising anybody on this? Hmm.)

It depends on how you feel about it. I was worried about my future, personally, but in the end my curiosity out-weighed my apprehension. I wanted a change, too. If you think there is any chance that you may regret it, you may want to leave it though.

audio;

[tutee]

[ Bill sighs. ]

There's always a chance I'll regret it. There's a chance I'll regret anything I do. Doesn't usually stop me from doing it, though.

[scholiast]

Sure.

Well, you could always... uh, make a pros and cons list? If you're that worried about it, I mean.

[tutee]

[ That makes Bill smile. Lucretia would be one to make lists. ]

Yeah. I guess.

Pros: My curiosity will be satisfied.
Cons: I could wind up old, sad, and alone.

[scholiast]

(Lucretia raises an eyebrow.)

Well let me know if you do. We could start a club for old, sad, alone people; it'll be fun.

[tutee]

If you have a club, you're not alone. So I suppose that solves one problem.

[scholiast]

Yeah my own personal pros list is looking very good right now.

It probably won't take you that far though, Bill.

[tutee]

No, likely not. Still, there's no way to know for sure until I do it.

[ She hesitates, but then asks, ] Will you come with me? When I open it.

[scholiast]

(Oh.)

Sure. (She says it easily, without hesitation. Taako had been with her when she opened hers, after all. She wouldn't want Bill to have to go through a potentially similar experience alone.)

Just let me know when.

[tutee]

[ She takes a deep breath. She'd said yes. Bill didn't have to do this alone. ]

Sooner rather than later, I think. I don't want to have to wait.

[scholiast]

Sooner as in right now, or?

(She understands that immediate desire to get it over and done with, before you chicken out.)

[tutee]

Um... Tonight? Or tomorrow, if you're busy tonight.

[scholiast]

No, I can do tonight.

(Oh, she hasn't really seen Bill in person since she changed, huh. Hmm.)

Are you still staying in the community housing?

[tutee]

I am. Floor two.