give it all you got, go

[alicornucopia]

At a booth in Milliways sits a woman in her thirties, stirring a cup of tea, watching the stars explode. There is a fat boring-looking lawbook under her elbow, and a barcode across the back of her right hand.

Mark (with kappa)

Ruth (with Maggie)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"I'm in 2015."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I'm pretty sure that's earlier than normal for cloning technology to be developed, so kudos, you do have science fiction in real life. I'm from 2123."

[alicornucopia]

"Cloning's been around for longer than that. I'm thirty-two."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Congratulations! You are from a sci-fi world. Probably not as sci-fi as mine, though, it's true, my older brother's a hundred and ninety-seven."

[alicornucopia]

"How is it decided whose worlds are sci-fi? Who gets to be normal?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I'm mostly joking. Milliways tends to attract Earths more often than anything else, and twenty-first century Earths more than most, and there's a sort of cultural and technological standard that you'll probably come to understand if you come in to Milliways often enough. I'm characterizing sci-fi as anything significantly more advanced than standard."

[alicornucopia]

"Ah."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"But we're pretty exceptional even by that standard. Genetic super powers and rejuvenation tech and time travel oh my."

[alicornucopia]

"Sounds nice for you."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Yeah, I got decanted well after the nasty shit went down."

[alicornucopia]

"Nice friendly wanted-a-kid cloning?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...Bad guys wanted a kid they could brainwash who would hopefully have powers as strong as my brother's and fiddled with my DNA a bit to get it, so I'm arguably not a straight-up clone of my mom but whatever, but got caught before it was time to pop the lid."

[alicornucopia]

"Ah."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I mean, Mom and Dad were awesome about it, no harm done, they didn't have the opportunity to psychologically scar me even a little bit."

[alicornucopia]

"That's good then."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"The actual nasty stuff I was referring to was...remember how I said my brother was a hundred and ninety seven? And it was 2123?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"My family's Jewish. And originally from Germany."

[alicornucopia]

"Ah."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"That would be what I meant about number tattoos."

[alicornucopia]

"There weren't all that many possibilities unless it was a future event."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Nope. You don't get many people appropriating those."

[alicornucopia]

"I told someone asking about the tattoo to go ahead and get one," snorts lawbook lady. "Get one, go gloveless, loiter in public places, and get arrested without telling the cops they were an original. Make trouble on clones' behalf."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Sounds productive. They take you up on it?"

[alicornucopia]

"No idea. It was on the internet, not someone I know."