1. [text]

[yousayyes]

[As Winston's second day at sea starts, he feels the distinct creeping anxiety of his mind preoccupying itself with worry over what could be happening back home in his absence.]

[Normally, he'd try reading to pass the time and keep his mind busy from those thoughts- but Mom only packed him two books, and he's already read through both of them cover-to-cover multiple times by now. ...he started to realize somewhere in the middle of his fifth re-read of the trainer's guide that he wasn't actually working to absorb the information. By that point, he was just glancing down at the turning pages to feel some amount of productivity as he's stuck waiting for the cruise ship to reach Kanto.]

[Setting the books back in his bag, Winston opens his Pokégear, thumbing through its features until he reaches a text posting option. ...it can't hurt to put something out there, right?]

Hi.

Current events outside of my control have left me temporarily unemployed, seeing as I'm now stuck in a different dimension from my former workplace.

I know- we've ALL been there before... /endsarcasm

While I'm sure my coworkers will be understanding of the situation and leave my spot open until I return... I don't see that reunion happening anytime soon. So in the meantime: if anyone could point me towards a job listing in the Kanto area, I would appreciate it a lot.

Many thanks.

- Winston Zeddemore

Comments

[text]

[pkemeter]

[Egon is on break--despite the fact that he doesn't actually take breaks unless it's to eat snacks--at the Pokémon Center when he idly sees the new network post. He has to read the message three times for it to completely hit him.

Winston Zeddemore.

His chest feels like it's being squashed by Gozer. It's him. He begins typing up a message, when he remembers that...this might not be the Winston that he or the others might know. He hastily deletes his message and writes:]

Winston. What age are you? What is the last thing you remember before coming here? Who are your employers?

[....Maybe he...should have told him who he is. These are a lot of invasive questions from an apparent stranger.]

[yousayyes]

[...is this how they do job interviews here? These questions aren't exactly "what's your biggest weakness" and "where do you see yourself in five years".]

Alright? In order:

Thirty-six. Sleeping in my bed at the firehouse. ...we don't exactly have a strictly delineated employer-employee hierarchy. We're all Ghostbusters.

[pkemeter]

[Thirty-six. So, not his dimension's Winston Zeddemore. Or at least not his time. Winston was at least forty when he joined the rest of the Ghostbusters at the firehouse in Egon's dimension. He can't help but feel a little disappointed--so far, he's the only Ghostbuster from his own dimension. That disappointment is quickly washed away with excitement as he realizes the implications behind Winston's appearance.]

Winston, this is Egon Spengler--not the Egon Spengler you are likely familiar with, however. I arrived here approximately eight months before you did, along with two other Ghostbusters from another parallel dimension with differing appearances from the Ghostbusters from my universe.

You may ask questions, if you wish. But I wish to know--where are you right now?

[yousayyes]

[Ah, okay.]

[It's Egon.]

[...an Egon.]

Hey Egon.

Right now, I'm on a cruise ship headed towards Kanto. This is my second day on it, so I should arrive at Pallet Town sometime tomorrow. Or maybe the day after, if we face delays along the way.

I already know about the eight months. Or, at least I know that time's at a standstill everywhere else, and any and all forward progress exists only within the bounds of the world we're in. ...I don't suppose you can explain how that level of time displacement is supposed to be possible?

[pkemeter]

Of course. Take whatever time you need. I am looking forward to our first interaction in person.

[He has a lot that he wants to say, but...he's afraid that it won't have the intended effect if he says it over text as opposed to in real life. He hates to admit it, but...ever since arriving to this dimension, there's been a nugget of fear that's been firmly lodged deep inside his brain that doesn't seem to be able to remove itself, no matter how much is done to dig it out.

He pushes the notion out of his mind. He's good at clearing his mind of excess thoughts.]

Well, most people think of dimensions as running parallel to each other, like several trains on a set of parallel train tracks, all going at the same speed down the rails. Each dimension, in this metaphor, being each train. However, although it is true that some dimensions run parallel to each other, that does not mean that time passes in a similar manner for each dimension. Some dimensions, or trains, may run slower, or some may run faster, or some may not appear to move at all in relation to other trains. Time is relative, after all, and we should not expect each dimension to remain synchronized with other dimensions.

Are you familiar with the legend of Urashima Taro?

[yousayyes]

So if I'm understanding this right: it's not necessarily that time's /frozen/, just moving so slow it might as well be. Like, there's still SOME amount of time passing outside, but for every one-billionth of a second that happens outside, a year happens in here?

[That at least feels more physically possible than a complete time stop across all worlds. Especially if the majority of universes aren't synced up with each other to begin with. It's good to know he can still expect Egon to have all the answers.]

[Even if he shouldn't put that expectation on him. This isn't the same Egon, don't act like he is. He's his own person.]

[...]

Can't say that I am, no. But I'd be interested to hear about it.

[pkemeter]

Correct. It all depends on our relative perspective.

[One day they'll talk about their problems about multidimensional dating. Today, it's time for Egon to infodump about legends where people get transported to another world and a different amount of time passes in their home world.]

Urashima Taro is the Japanese legend of a fisherman who was rewarded for his kindness for rescuing a sea turtle. Transported on the sea turtle's back, he arrived at an underwater castle called the Dragon Palace. The princess of the palace thanks him for rescuing it, and Urashima spends several days enjoying the princess's company. After time passes, he becomes homesick and wishes to return to his parents, but the princess attempts to dissuade him. Eventually, however, she lets him go, giving him a small box as a gift and telling him to never open it.

When he arrives on the surface, he finds that a hundred years have passed in the few days he was in the palace, and his mother and father were both dead. He then lifted the lid of the box he was given and immediately turned into a withered old man.



Actually, perhaps this wasn't the best analogy to draw. Ignore everything I said previously.

[yousayyes]

...and the takeaway from this story is "time flies when you're having fun".

All joking aside, that DOES raise the question of how aging works in this dimension... I'd like to hope it's a straightforward Neverland situation where we aren't getting any older staying here, and there won't be a "going back home turns you into a wrinkly husk" end in store for us.

[You opened this can of worms Egon now you're going to lie in it.]

[pkemeter]

Unsure. I have polled several people who have traveled from their home dimension to this one. It seems that aging is inconsistent--children and teenagers, for some reason, seem to age normally, day by day, year by year, so on and so forth. However, for adults, aging seems to occur either at a slower pace to the point where it seems nonexistent or occurs normally, as seen in children. When people disappear and then return to this world with all their memories intact, they seem to have not aged at all.

So far, any tests I have performed have been inconclusive.