A Rose by any Other Name

A Rose by any Other Name is the tenth quest in The Hall of Memories - Darkovian Wing.

Dialogue
«Scene: Darkovia Forest»

Ardendor and the Mysterious Stranger enter the scene.

Ardendor: So you are not the same Mysterious Stranger as in that world... And your Shadowscythe are not even the same? Mysterious Stranger: There are many Terrans on Terra named John. There are many Terrans on Terra named Smith. They are all connected, but they are all distinct. Mysterious Stranger: Should this be any different? It is not. They are all connected, but they are all distinct. It is similar but different... Mysterious Stranger: More like the wing of a bird and a wing of a bat are same and different. Ardendor: They arose independently to adapt to the same niche... Mysterious Stranger: More or less... we evolve constantly and change... both of us. At times we are the same... and at times we are different. Ardendor: So... you are filling a niche. A niche that others called Mysterious Strangers have filled in other versions of Lore... but you are not the same one. Ardendor: And here it seems... yes, they would be alternate timelines only because they converged close to each other at points, not because they were connected at all. Ardendor: They changed to mimic each other. Ardendor: But that mimicry, no matter how imperfect it might be, would actually connect them enough that at times they would merge if they both were perfectly synced. Mysterious Stranger: Most astute, birdie... You are truly soaring high. In fact... such a merger nearly happened at least once already, and myself and another nearly were one for a time. Mysterious Stranger: The manipulation of the Lorians of their time broke the connection quite firmly... Yet I have managed to recently recover some of his own adaptations for myself. Mysterious Stranger: But I digress, dear dove... Given the right time event a merger of some sort may still occur in some whens. I still see the tapestry in front of us. Mysterious Stranger: Now you know why such a matter has no easy answer. Mysterious Stranger: The name I bear is no more mine than it is "theres." This is true both of the title and our "race" and it is even true of your Lores.

The scene zooms in on Ardendor and the Mysterious Stranger.

Ardendor: I infer by the way you said "theres" you are implying a double entendre. It is both "there" as in "that location" and "theirs." Mysterious Stranger: Very clever, my egret. Yes... I meant both. Yet you must avoid speaking so formally. Before your little accident you were never so grandiose. Mysterious Stranger: Now where was I... Oh yes... this disconnected connection is true both of the title and our "race" and it is even true of your Lores.

The scene zooms out.

Mysterious Stranger: Our kind are like kinds but not identical kinds. We flowed differently from a common font. Ardendor: Wow! That's neat. You're all connected... Mysterious Stranger: ...Yes, like parts of a whole, but like any other virus... Ardendor: Each strain has its own mutations! Cool. That really is neat. Mysterious Stranger: Oh it is indeed. Very neat and cool, my chickadee. Ardendor: Chickadee: a Terran bird of genus Poecile that is non-migratory and overwinters in colder climates. Mysterious Stranger: Very good, Falerin. Very good. Yet... watch such displays of erudition. They alienate others. Ardendor: I'll be more careful, mister. So... other forces have been called Mysterious Stranger on other Lores and other worlds, but you used the title on several. Mysterious Stranger: That is too simple. We are mirrors as much as we are shades. The shadow reflects that which it emulates. Others bearing my name have existed since before time. Mysterious Stranger: I am no creature. Others may or may not be like me. It depends on the moment. Mysterious Stranger: We are shades, the essence of flux and fluctuation, time and reality are unfolding as one moment to us. Ardendor: So the virus, and the undead, and you and those like you are all the same... and yet all different... I think you missed something, dude. Mysterious Stranger: How so? Ardendor: You say that you're no being or entity. You're like a force of nature and echo from another omniverse before this one. That's all pretty wicked, by the way, but...

The scene zooms in on Ardendor and the Mysterious Stranger.

Ardendor: Yet you've interacted with the material world since time immemorial... or more correctly, from your own perspective you are amidst interacting with all of these. Ardendor: You exist in linear time for moments at a time, but then kick it back to your own flow... but even when you're outside of time you are still interacting. Ardendor: You can only focus on the unity that is your flow, or on pieces. Ardendor: Never on both at once. It is like a cosmic karmic of the Terran Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Mysterious Stranger: This is apt enough... if a bit simple. thought for a chickadee like yourself... simplicity is a virtue.

The scene zooms out.

Ardendor: So you entered the experiment. You interacted with it. Looking in the box collapses the wave function. Starting the experiment alters it. Ardendor: Entering effects stronger change, and not just to the experiment - to the observer. Ardendor: Just the fact that you can differentiate between yourself and others like you means that you are just as much a being as I am, or at the very least an entity. Ardendor: You may not be alive or dead in any sense of the word, but you have self-identity. Only entities have that. Ardendor: You're one of us now, man. Mysterious Stranger: In a sense, yes... and in a sense I will have been yesterday more like you tomorrow. For beings locked in linear time we evolve, but for ourselves we are all possibilities now. Ardendor: But since you are an entity, you need a name. Maybe like the princess in Michael Ende you'll be named by a great hero... Oh, that'd be exciting! Mysterious Stranger: Of course it would be, chickadee. And perhaps so. But... who could possibly watch us as we watch them the way Bastian did? Hehehe... Mysterious Stranger: Now... other lessons await you, my dear pupil...

The scene fades away...


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