💭 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.

text; @gamora

[godslay]

Do you have reason to fear your own future?

text;

[tutee]

I don't think so? although the world I was in wasn't great when I left it, so maybe.

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.

[video | un: edward.elric]

[alchemyfreak]

[Oh, hey. A face to go with that previous conversation.]

I guess the question is how badly you want to know. It's not an easy decision, I don't think.

[He's still not sure. For one, he's afraid of the answers he will receive, and for another if his future is Al's, it's not exactly a happy one.]

You got the canister for a reason, right?

[ text | un: jkent ]

[supersweet]

I've seen a lot of futures. Sometimes you just have to know and move on.

[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.

[tutee]

[ Bill shrugs. ]

I got the canister because they gave it to me at the portal. Said it was mine.

[ She bites her lip. ] I mean. I have to open it eventually.

[tutee]

what if it's not the sort of thing you can move on from?

[supersweet]

I think that's up to you than the memories.

[tutee]

the world I left... it wasn't grand. I wanted to change it, but I didn't know how.

I don't want to see years of being stuck in a world like that.

[supersweet]

But you're also not stuck right now? Maybe you can find a way of changing it from here.

[tutee]

I don't have the things I need.

[ She doesn't have the TARDIS. She doesn't have the Doctor. ]

[supersweet]

But you still have you. You get to look at the memories instead of being stuck in them.

[tutee]

I'll still change. if something happens to me in the memories, it happens to me here.

[supersweet]

But you're not alone, right? You still have friends. People who care and will help you.

You may not have everything, but you have something.

[ It's been Jon's mantra in Riverview lately. He may not have his parents anymore, but he's not 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]

what I have is a lot of questions. and I think the answers, good or bad, are in that canister.

[tutee]

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

[supersweet]

Maybe open it with a friend nearby? I opened mine on my own and that kind of sucked.

[tutee]

I dunno. something about it feels private.

[supersweet]

It's your call. Just be careful.

[tutee]

I will.
thanks.

[supersweet]

Sure. I hope it works out.