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[boneyjangles]

Reading this post my fore-head distinctly furrowed like an over-cooked ham, before capitulating into a slab of moist aspic, now barely still attached to my skull.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

The best part about this story is the weird reactions in the thread.

I've got memories that I know are derived from dreams. I don't know they're false until I deduce this from a failure to be consistent with reality or (not so cool) I blurt out the memory in public. I once greeted an acquaintance by saying how pleasant it had been to meet his daughter in our previous meeting. He was childless and clearly a bachelor, and very freaked out.

There've been a couple of times where I dreamed an encounter and mistakenly brought it up with the person. One time I had a boring dream where I met somebody who claimed to be friends with somebody I work with named Paul. On my way to work the next day, I kept trying to remember who I had met that knew Paul so I could tell him about it. I was getting so annoyed that I couldn't remember who I met or where I saw them. Finally it dawned on me that it hadn't happened at all and was a dream I couldn't fully remember from the night before.

When I have vivid but otherwise ordinary dreams, my brain sometimes decides they're memories and sort of files them as some short-term recollection. Even though I had the dream the night before and met somebody, my brain knew that could not logically be possible, and simply filed it under "recently". It took a few moment's of critical thought to realize that never happened at all.

My girlfriend and I also went to an amusement park once, then she dreamed about the same day that night. So a couple weeks later when we were discussing it, she started to recount part of the trip that only happened in her dream before realizing her mistake. It's a bizarre and mysterious thing.

Reading this post my fore-head distinctly furrowed like an over-cooked ham, before capitulating into a slab of moist aspic, now barely still attached to my skull.

This is extremely good. Terrific use of the word aspic. I will have to remember that imagery in my own future work.

 

[Spoiled Milk]

Sometimes I shower with the lights off.

This is weird. :/

 

[dyergram]

Reading this post my fore-head distinctly furrowed like an over-cooked ham, before capitulating into a slab of moist aspic, now barely still attached to my skull.

Such a perfect response bravo!


Op I really enjoyed reading that and ironically my initial reaction was that the 'do not open' was in the comic I was actually really suprised to see it wasn't.

 

[The Kree]

I read the whole story. It was worth it.

 

[AALLx]

Damnit OP, you wrote all that and still didn't bother to finish the story. So what's the explanation? How did you both come up with the same inside joke? Where did the memory originate? You're leaving me in a cliffhanger here.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

My sister and I love to sing that little diddy Michael does in the Office episode where he has to sign a bunch of reports all at once, the one where he's rhythmically tapping on his coffee cup with a pencil:

"I don't want to work, I just want to bang on this cup all day"

But little did we know what we had wrought all those years. Because when we were at a summer party where the Office was on in the background, this episode came on. And yes, we were desperately excited to be able to sing along with the entire crowd in a triumphant refrain of the human spirit. So as Michael starts to bang, we all start to wail and smile....

Only we weren't smiling because Michael doesn't say 'cup', oh no friends, the devil won on this day because you know what Michael said on this TV? Michael said "bang.....on.....this...... MUG". Yeah you heard me right, he said MUG!?!1 Everyone looked at us like we were from another planet, "did you just say...cup?", "you know that's a coffee mug right?".

We tried to explain what had happened but nobody was willing to admit what was painfully obvious to me and my sister. Which is that we had just been thrown into an alternate reality where the only difference was that the words of this office episode song had changed from cup to mug.

now we spend our time just praying that our next leap is the leap back home

 

[tonysidaway]

now we spend our time just praying that our next leap is the leap back home

I get that. Didn't Paul McCartney use to be left-handed? Stuff like that. But by the time I get around to checking, it's changed back again.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Damnit OP, you wrote all that and still didn't bother to finish the story. So what's the explanation? How did you both come up with the same inside joke? Where did the memory originate? You're leaving me in a cliffhanger here.

That's the mystery. We have no explanation. For us, the memory extends clearly all the way to our first viewing. There is no specific time where we made the joke or reference that diverted the course of history. Somehow, we just continually reinforced the false memory until it was the only one we had. Because we are so close, and trust what the other says, I don't think it ever would have set off any alarms that one of us was wrong. So as time went on, the false memory just became more and more true.

Until it was tested, then it all collapsed.

We tried to explain what had happened but nobody was willing to admit what was painfully obvious to me and my sister. Which is that we had just been thrown into an alternate reality where the only difference was that the words of this office episode song had changed from cup to mug.

now we spend our time just praying that our next leap is the leap back home

Do you think there is a version of us all in our old timeline that we changed places with? Do you think they're just as confused as we are?

When we go back, will it still feel like home? What if this is all there is?