[Very messy print, strikethroughs heavily scribbled-out]

[moarnomsplz]

Is anyone else Is it very common to wake up here changed different from usual?

Comments

[hairraising]

I asked pretty much this question yesterday. From all the responses and from what I can see from myself? The answer is a pretty solid YES.

How different are you from how you were before?

[moarnomsplz]

I hardly have the correct number of anything, except arms and my head.

[hairraising]

Wait, so [pen tap] were you missing an eye before? Do you have an extra leg? How many numbers of things can there be on a person?

Are you another artificial person? I've heard of a couple of those here so far.

[moarnomsplz]

I had a sensible number before, and I am not artificial, I am an alien.

[hairraising]

What you've got now isn't sensible?

And an alien what? Did you forget a word there?

[moarnomsplz]

It is not sensible. I do not understand how bipeds without tails do not fall over constantly.

[pen tap] An alien teenager? You will need to be more specific before I can guess what you think I have forgotten.

[hairraising]

...They balance?

I mean, like, I get that you mean you're strange or out there. That's what I always figured "alien" meant. Is that all you mean? Or is it something to do with the tails you mentioned there?

[moarnomsplz]

I mean from a planet that is not Earth. Have you not encountered the word in that context before?

[pen tap] And I am perfectly normal for my age and rank.

[hairraising]

No, not at all. Did you live in a space colony then? I met someone yesterday who said they were from one! I still can't get over how amazing it would be to live that far up!

Also, define "normal" for you. No really, I'm curious.

[moarnomsplz]

I did not think you were being disingenuous, but normal for anyone is complicated to describe.

I lived on my people's homeworld. It is approximately 78 light-years from Earth.

[hairraising]

Guess it would be. My own life is pretty not normal compared to what I'm sure most people go through.

What does that mean? That it would take 78 years to get there? The people running this place have enough time to travel that far and back?!

[moarnomsplz]

It would take much longer than that in normal space. It is 452.4 trillion miles away. But I did not come from there. I was on Earth already.

You were not-normal enough that they changed something about you, correct?

[Strikeout somewhat legible]

[hairraising]

WHAT?! Trillion? I always thought that was a made-up number. How do you get a trillion of any The space beyond the sky is a LOT bigger than I thought. How did you even get to Earth in the first place if it's that far?!

And yeah, sort of. More like they took something away. More of it comes back at night, but not the whole thing. It's kind of complicated.

[moarnomsplz]

My people have faster-than light travel, which I am now assuming yours have nothing approaching.

[slightly messier] You experience a limited restoration of your natural self at night?

[hairraising]

Wait, how do you even make something that can go faster than light? Doesn't light just [pen marks] appear wherever it shines, like instantaneously? How do you go faster than that? You'd have to arrive before you even thought of leaving! Right?

And I did last night, anyway. I was still missing about half of what I lost, but it was more than I've got right now. Other people have told me they get some things back at night too, like abilities and such.

[moarnomsplz]

No, light takes time to travel. It is simply so fast that the distances involved do not matter from the perspective of most people. But when you begin to consider interplanetary transportation, it is significant indeed.

[some false starts] I confess I did not pay attention as well as I might have to the lesson on the equations that govern such travel. Essentially, it is necessary to bypass linear space if you wish to get anywhere in a reasonable time frame. And time travel is an altogether trickier thing.

I would like to hear more about your situation, but I would understand if you would prefer not to elaborate here.

[hairraising]

I don't know if I understood all that, but I guess I can at least take your word that light travels and that your people have figured out some really incredible things. Just. Wow. I still can't even wrap my head around a bunch of this stuff.

It's the kind of thing that might put me in danger if I tell too many people who don't need to know, I think. Sorry.

[moarnomsplz]

[pen tap, and this is a bit messier] Those are more general principles than discoveries specific to my people.

I understand. I am in a similar situation.