[video / action for new bark town]

[meteorman]

[Ford is perhaps better-equipped than most to deal with suddenly being dropped into a strange world unlike anything he's ever seen before. That was his life for thirty-odd years, and that it's begun again doesn't trouble him much. He'll adapt; he always has, with time. The woman (clearly younger than him) calling herself his mother is a little strange, but further inquiry and a cursory scan of the literature included in his new backpack answer most of his questions. In particular, they explain the neat little device that looks very much like an odd cellphone. This 'Pokégear' can be used to communicate with other people, and so that is exactly what Ford decides to do. If he's learned anything in his prior experience with this sort of thing, it's to ask questions.

The camera shakes a little, and his face is sort of awkwardly off to the side of the frame, but he managed to get it working and that's the important thing. For a first try he's not doing all that badly. Behind him, trees and a couple of quaint New Bark Town roofs are visible.]

Greetings! Is greetings the polite form of salutation in this universe? My name is Stanford Pines, and like what I assume must be the majority of you, I am not a native of this world. I only just arrived today, in fact. This is probably the warmest welcome I've seen since the universe where every day is your birthday.

[That place got old really fast, honestly (and you got old really fast if you stayed there too long).]

But, to business. [He holds up a pokéball with the hand not holding the 'gear.] How do you open--

[As if on cue, the Pokéball pops open and out of the light materializes a small green creature. It takes one look at him, lets out a surprised trill, and zips away out of frame.]

Oh! [Ford peers in the direction it went, clearly thrilled to bits.] I think it hid in those bushes, hold on --

[Those who reply by 'gear will get to follow what is essentially Ford Pines liveblogging his attempts to recapture his own starter. Or perhaps, if you're in New Bark Town as well, you'd like to help in person? An old man crashing around in the underbrush on the outskirts of town is sure to draw attention.]

Comments

[meteorman]

Ah! You must be from a universe without inter-dimensional travel and a widespread knowledge of the supernatural. Trust me, when the multiverse is infinite, anything is possible no matter how hard it may be to believe.

[thatwasours]

Widespread? No.

[but that psychic Russian kid and the aptly named Man On Fire? yeah, those sure happened.]

I understand the many-worlds interpretation, it's the 'accidentally wandering through repeatedly' part I'm stuck on.

[meteorman]

Why? If one has the ability to travel and explore, one ought to take advantage of it.

Besides, between you and me, a lot of the universes out there are not worth staying in for all that long. There are some real duds out there.

[Shoutout to you, M dimension, you hellhole.]

[thatwasours]

Of course. But wouldn't you take notes, chart things out, start taking guesses at the conditions that might cause wormholes?

Just 'wandering' doesn't seem like a very efficient way to do it.

[meteorman]

Ah, well of course. It's less that I stumble backwards through them habitually and more than I tend to happen upon them by accident and decide I might as well. There have been plenty of times that I have sought them out purposefully, but I would still call traveling between worlds with no knowledge of where I might end up 'wandering'. Most wormholes, accidental or otherwise, tend to look the same regardless of where they lead to.

[And with an infinite amount of universes to wander through and status as an inter-dimensional outlaw, it was real hard to make too much progress toward the few universes he did want to find.]

[thatwasours]

I see.

But how do you even start looking for a wormhole. What do they look like?

[meteorman]

That tends to depend entirely on the wormhole. They all have certain factors in common, in my experience: they resemble some sort of entrance or doorway. There was a bottomless pit in my back yard I used to jump into when I wanted to be alone to think. That one always led into itself so you'd wind up popping right back out the top after a while.

[That is a normal thing to do and not at all weird, right?]