[Voice]

[undyingcrow]

[In the middle of a restless night, Akechi addresses the radio.]

One thing has become abundantly clear since my arrival: the vast majority of us hail from different times, if not different worlds.

[He pauses, letting that sink in.]

For instance, I'm from Japan in the year 2017. However, it is specifically the same version of Japan shared by Akihiko Sanada and Naoto Shirogane... in the future. That places the three of us in a shared reality, but not the same point in time.

However, our version of Japan has endured a number of odd, even supernatural occurrences, such as a "Dark Hour" and, more recently, the vigilante work of a group of "Phantom Thieves" who quite literally changed the hearts of wicked adults through the use of a parallel, cognitive world.

[His voice remains calm, if tinged with a subtle weariness.]

But that is far from universal. In my time here, I have encountered a talking turtle from a world where yokai and mutants are real. I've spoken with someone who had been sent into a digital world, like an isekai protagonist. I even had to explain the concept of religion to Serph-san, as well what a horse is.

[...]

All this to say, it may be worthwhile to cross reference the worlds and time periods we hail from. If nothing else, it may help us discern patterns that could in turn heighten our understanding of our present circumstances.

Comments

voice;

[faceguy]

Don't forget magic and demons! Those are real, too!

[And aliens, and time travel...]

But yeah, I'm from New York in 2020.

[Truly a cursed year.]

voice;

[undyingcrow]

Well, yes. That's the only feasible to explain your little portal trick.

[2020, though... How interesting. Of course, it must be a different 2020. That much is more or less a given, and even so...]

Anything I ought to know about, heading towards the next decade?

did covid happen in the rottmnt timeline? let's not speculate lol

[faceguy]

[He's not wrong. Magic is pretty lit. Even if Leo isn't as good at it as his brothers...

But never mind.]

Uhh... well, if you're looking for the lottery numbers, I didn't memorize them. I can give you all the updates on the next three March Madness...es... the next three of those!

voice

[bufudine]

[What the hell Akechi, don't let everyone know how little he knows!! Is how he'd feel, if he actually cared.

Since Akechi had mentioned a digital world, Serph explains in a much more straightforward manner than he has to most others prior.]

My original world was virtual, created by people of Nirvana.

[So that probably explains a lot about him not knowing things.]

voice

[undyingcrow]

[He remembers Serph discussing his world, briefly, but virtual...? How interesting.]

It's interesting that you're familiar with a Nirvana, and now we're tasked with finding it ourselves.

[Is it the same? Akechi has his doubts, but still...]

I'd no idea you were digital, however.

[bufudine]

[There's a tiny hint of wryness in his reply.]

Neither did I.

Digital data and... [Serph falters for a moment, trying to think of an appropriate word. 'Real' didn't sit quite right with him; the Junkyard was real] ...what exists in Nirvana aren't so different.

[Fred had said he'd jumped out of a video game, before asking him what level he was. What was that even supposed to mean?]

We were infected with the demon virus, turning us into monsters. The information gathered from us made the virus suitable for use in Nirvana.

voice

[thetatters]

[ Oh thank god, he doesn't have to keep pretending to understand anyone's references. He certainly doesn't know what an isekai protagonist is; the parallel world makes more sense. ]

I have noticed the same. [ And, like a lying liar who lies: ] For me it was Massachusetts, in America, upon Earth. The year is 1934.

voice

[undyingcrow]

1934... That's before World War II.

[There's an air of surprise in his voice. Time discrepancies were to be expected, but one so vast is... quite a lot to imagine.]

I imagine this place has been quite the culture shock, then.

[thetatters]

World War II?

[ This would be a horrifying series of words to hear if he were actually a human from 1934. As it stands, John has only a hazy awareness of the first Great War. He sounds puzzled, but not terribly alarmed. ]

Much of the technology seems... alien. And I suppose people dress in unusual clothing. But I was still able to find a vehicle that I recognize.

voice

[flowersnjunk]

Never heard of a 'Japan', meself. I'd tell you where I'm from, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist anymore!

[She sounds entirely too chipper about that.]

voice

[undyingcrow]

Most people would sound a bit more disheartened by that...

[There's clearly a story here. Consider his interest piqued.]

[flowersnjunk]

Well I'm still not one-hundred percent sure how it all worked, but my world wasn't exactly meant to exist in the first place? Or at least, not in the way it did when I lived in it. We fixed it, though! I think.

voice

[solitarysoul]

[Wait, different worlds and times? He guesses that makes sense because if he thinks about it why would this place not just pull from wherever?]

I-I'm from Bohemia. It's, uh, it was 1942.

[undyingcrow]

[Another from the distant path, and more importantly...]

That would put you in the middle of World War II.

[Goodness. What a time in history, especially given his own country's past.]

[solitarysoul]

No...the second great war just ended.

[He knows this first hand. But his timeline is a bit different from the norm.]

[Text]

[constantvrunning]

[V is, for the most part, quietly listening.

But they do eventually have something to add:]

The planet - Earth - that I am from, subcontinent Tamaris - hasn't used a calendar like that in centuries, probably millennia. During what's known as the Radiant Era, humanity managed to call upon-slash-discover 'exotic forces'. Shortly thereafter, society hollowed itself out, suddenly and probably violently. For scale, it's generally believed the geography of the Earth was itself reshaped in the fallout.
There are scattered remnants of civilization slowly rebuilding, but large-scale transport and communication is at an absolute minimum. The closest thing there is to a date I can give you is 425 JZ - for Juniper Zero.

Nowadays, those 'exotic forces' are conventionally referred to as magic - enhanced animals, self-aware and animate sections of land or water, genetically modified as well as entirely 'artificial' - Synthetic - humans, and there are still artefacts from the Radiant Era that sometimes reactivate, or can be salvaged.

[undyingcrow]

That's quite a drastic shift from the Earth I'm most familiar with.

[It all sounds so fantastical, really. Then again, his own experiences both here and in the Metaverse are hardly ordinary to begin with.]

It must have been a considerable power to change the world so drastically. Sapient elements and objects are commonplace within human mythologies and fiction, but outside of cognitive worlds such as the Metaverse, they're otherwise unheard of.

Voice

[guidemyway]

Pretty sure me and my friends are from a different planet than most of the people here.

We're from a place called Remnant.

And... I'm like a few weeks ahead of where my friends are from.

[undyingcrow]

Then you must know Yang-san.

[She did mention Remnant during their first meeting, after all.]

All things considered, the time discrepancy could be worse. I'm several years ahead of Shirogane-san and Sanada-san, though we'd never personally met even in my time.

[airskate]

I'm from Earth. It's 2024. Japan exists, but I'm not sure if there was anything involving a Dark Hour or Phantom Thieves.

[ What might be distinctive...

... Oh. ]

... An orbital laser recently cut the moon in two.

[undyingcrow]

[That's... certainly an alarming bit of news.]

I wonder how that will affect the tides. Surely its gravitational pull changed as a result...

voice

[serialmurderbot]

[It's spent enough time listening to this to drop a full five percentage points in performance reliability. It's been wanting to classify all these as corporate colonist humans being uninformed, but the more it listens, the more it sounds like a plot point from one of its extremely unrealistic adventure shows, where the protagonist gets scooped into another world or sent back in time, or turned into something else entirely to learn a lesson about humility or love or something.

The kind that definitely aren't fucking real. Its education modules are shit but they're not that shit. So, when it finally speaks up, it's without introduction or sharing its own information.]

If you really think it's multiverse bullshit comparison of names and dates won't mean much. Especially when we don't know fuck-all about where or when we are, compared to what we're used to.

voice

[undyingcrow]

[It's not that he doesn't see SecUnit's points. By all accounts, learning about the trends to those brought here is unlikely to provide answers regarding this world...

Still, he has to defend his dignity.]

It's less about the world and more about patterns in the people summoned here. Why us? And what similarities and differences exist among us?

I've been compiling clues regarding our present whereabouts as well.

Audio

[wereperrito]

Oh, I'm from Earth, too. A different one from all of you I think. We've had three alien invasions and some superheroes and also some monsters. Also half the universe got erased from existence and then brought back five years later.

[Yes, it was in fact as messy as it sounds.]

Oh, and I'm from the year 2025. And I wasn't involved in any of those other things except some of the bits with the monsters.

[undyingcrow]

That's... quite an eventful chain of events.

[Like a series of comic books or an action series, perhaps. Not that he's in any position to judge.]

Then again, the world almost ended because the collective desire of humanity to surrender control to a higher authority conjured up a "holy grail" that acted as a false god, pitting two unwitting teenagers in a rigged game to decide the world's fate.

And then a therapist obtained that god-like power, trying to create a picturesque reality at the cost of everyone's individual agency.