audio | un: steinbeck

[graftage]

[There's the sound of someone clearing their throat.]

I don't know, I guess I just wanted to get this off my chest. See if this has happened to anyone else. It still feels weird to me to even think about it, but...

[A long sigh.]

Anyways. My name's John Steinbeck. And where I come from, that was just a regular name with no other meanings attached to it. Coming here, though, I happen to get lots of people askin' about some kind of author. Seems like he has the same name as me. Which is like, sure, guess the name could be common.

[There's a pause.]

And then, a really good friend of mine gave me one of his novels, and...its bizarre. The names of the characters have the same names as my family. The situation in the book is stuff that I'm familiar with, too. It's just....weird. And I guess I just wanted to ask if, like, this is something people have even experienced, knowing that there's some other YOU out there in a different world who you weren't even aware of. I know people come from different worlds. But has anyone found out about another version of themselves or whatever through talking to people around here? Or is there anyone else who has actually met their own selves here? I guess that could be a thing.

[World dimensional shenanigans, oh my!]

...Thanks for listening. [A beat.] And before anyone asks, no, I've never written a single thing in my life.

Comments

[dereban]

It might not be exciting, but I like the simple life. But yeah, it's definitely surprising.

It is! Especially since they do have the same name. Not to mention that there's a third person that shares their full name but not what they look like. It's something.

[graftage]

[A third person that shares their name and not what they look like...................HOLD UP.]

Wait a second.

Are you talking about Atsushi?

[dereban]

I am.

I assume you know them? The one that tries to be edgy is my roommate.

[graftage]

Is that the one who dresses mostly in black?

He's not that edgy though. Really sweet, actually.

[dereban]

Yeah.

Hence the 'tries to'. I get why he wears black, but it honestly doesn't suit him. But you're right he's sweet, though. He's kind, even if he doesn't have to be.

[graftage]

If I have to be completely honest, I like him a lot better than his "twin". That other guy hates my guts.

We actually come from the same world, you know.

[dereban]

I'm not going to make any assumptions as to why, but I'd harbor a guess that you did something bad to piss him off.

Oh, well that makes sense. I didn't want to assume of course, even though everyone from their world seems to have names based on authors in mine.

[graftage]

Maybe I did, maybe I didn't...

Yeah, it's weird. I don't know why we're all named after authors. Or maybe the authors are named after us...

[dereban]

Ah, a mystery.

I guess it's the whole 'chicken and the egg' thing. Can't tell which came first. The authors are pretty old, though.