Huh? Not making any sense? Because of the nature of these little flash fiction vignettes, I thought it would be helpful to index previous back stories and journal entries. Although Artiste’s tales are non-linear, it can help to read some pages in groups by threads of associated content. Of course you could just read them randomly, and trust that it will all come together at some point.
The beginning back story is always a great place to start:
• The Artiste Gullible back story
For this particular installment it also may help to read:
Traveling
Leviathan
Home Sweet Home
Destiny’s Designs
A Furry Kingdom
↓ Transcript
[image] Two friends on a park bench. One is talking while the other listens intently. Behind them a city scape full of aliens and blimps fill the background
[text] The life of a Traveler is lonely, and decidedly tough to relate to.
We are pushed from one reality to another without rhyme or reason. Where we have been, and where we end up does not seem to follow any discernible pattern, or effect any meaningful change. Were it not for the rings, and their implication of purpose, it would be entirely possible to call the whole exercise pointless; To accept that we are merely the hole that the multiverse feels compelled to fill, in reaction to some other unrelated event.
Regardless, when I come into a new now, a fellow traveler within that same space/time leaves. The push is not any more linear than the rest of our lives; Yesterday may well be my future, while my future may well have already been lived by a dozen me’s I have yet to be.
While it is inevitable that the traveler before me is bumped ahead (or behind?) it does not negate the chance that another traveler on a different line will share the same now as my own.
The luxury of crossed nows provides critical information to fellow
travelers; but it is the balm of
empathy that feeds the lonely soul.
[text] The life of a Traveler is lonely, and decidedly tough to relate to.
We are pushed from one reality to another without rhyme or reason. Where we have been, and where we end up does not seem to follow any discernible pattern, or effect any meaningful change. Were it not for the rings, and their implication of purpose, it would be entirely possible to call the whole exercise pointless; To accept that we are merely the hole that the multiverse feels compelled to fill, in reaction to some other unrelated event.
Regardless, when I come into a new now, a fellow traveler within that same space/time leaves. The push is not any more linear than the rest of our lives; Yesterday may well be my future, while my future may well have already been lived by a dozen me’s I have yet to be.
While it is inevitable that the traveler before me is bumped ahead (or behind?) it does not negate the chance that another traveler on a different line will share the same now as my own.
The luxury of crossed nows provides critical information to fellow
travelers; but it is the balm of
empathy that feeds the lonely soul.
So what he’s saying is, without those chance encounters, he would go all emo? (not that he knows what those are)
Probably not emo. It takes a special calling to be emo. In order for emo to really work you need to have an established norm. If everybody in high school dressed and acted emo, then the preps would be the new emo, and emo would be normal. Instead of black lace, leather and gothic crosses, the signs of rebellion would be deck shoes and oxford button downs. Which for me is far more scary.
These chance encounters do give him an opportunity to talk about his adventures to somebody who can relate. Commissery loves company (As in commiserate.) It’s not exactly friendship, but it’s close.
It makes me smile
when I see a new one of these on my feed. Lovely premise and stunning art work. thank you
Thank you Sal!
Of course this also raises the question of what is the metaphysical structure behind the Travellers… how did they begin? Why do they have set numbers on each world? And what of those Outside of their venue, those who end up drifting from world to world using techno-arcane methods (or meta-spiritual for that matter) different from what lured the Artiste Gullible into his travels? Do they also cause accidental bumps, or is their presence differentiated enough so that they exist at the same place and time as the Travelers?
It does raise a lot of questions, spiritual, metaphysical, and others. Hopefully I will get around to answering all of them in a nice neat pretty package. What I can say is that time and space is a lot more flexible than we imagine. Things like the grandfather paradox dont’ exist because unlike linier theory, time and space are more like a neural net of possibilities; some points anchored deep and unchangeable, others easily bypassed to produce simular results.
Then again … maybe we are all just memories of a giant tortoise upon whom’s back the metaverse resides.