1 (edited by intangirble 2015-11-18 18:07:04)

Topic: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

So I've been doing a bit of RPing as Wade lately (post-S4, rescued from the Kromaggs shortly before she would've got turned into a Cyberiad), and at the same time listening to Cory and Tom's (awesome!) Rewatch Podcast. (Well. Not at exactly the same time, but you get the idea. And yes, it's pronounced "intangible", more or less. The reference is to this guy.)

Anyway. So I came across a few questions the guys were asking about each episode. Why this? Why that? Did they really X? Why doesn't this part quite make sense? And I thought it would be cool, and a test of my writing chops, to answer them as Wade. I mean, she did serialise her diaries and all - let's say she's taking interviews.

I'm gonna go ahead and answer a few things here that Cory and Tom brought up, but if you'd like to ask Wade a question, go ahead! I'll answer as best I can, at least in terms of my opinion on how things went.

Oh, and apologies ahead of time if she gets a little grumpy. She doesn't actually take too well to having her reality questioned. Kromaggs, and all...

---


Re: The Dream Masters

Why would the police let a bunch of college dropouts go around terrorizing people like that? They have to touch you to hurt you, after all. They could just send in a SWAT team or the FBI and gun them all down.

Okay, but imagine that you're in this world. You don't know how many of these guys there are, how spread out they are or how many cells there might be, but they've vowed to avenge any slight against them. You know they can kill with a touch. And you know there are people - maybe even people close to you, your sister or friend, your colleague - who've gotten on the wrong side of them and now spend the rest of their lives being emotionally, mentally, and to some degree even physically violated every time they fall asleep. Images of rape, or even the act itself. Being violently murdered along with your loved ones, over and over again, each time believing it's for real. Jolting awake with your body convulsing, coughing blood, because your brain can't tell the difference. Having to be hauled over to a respirator and have the blood sucked out of your lungs every time they go too far.

And not just the acts, but the hypnotic suggestions they implant along with them: You'll never escape this. You're helpless. You're worthless. You're just our puppet now, to be used and controlled. If that's too simple, if your mind's too strong, they go for the next level. This is the real world. Your friends have abandoned you. Everyone you love has abandoned you. This is reality, and you created it; your own personal Hell. You even like what we do.

It doesn't have to be true. They just have to make you believe. This, forever, until you die; maybe even beyond. We can see into all time and space. No part of you escapes us, even in death. Unless you cooperate. Then we might spare you.

Need a stronger incentive? You're free. This was just a dream. It's all in your mind; you can walk out that door... Ha! Just kidding. You're back where you started. But maybe they'll come someday, your friends... oh look, here they are now... Whoops! Just another illusion.

Sorry... that might have gotten a little extreme. I don't mean to be overwhelming. But it's still fresh in my mind.

My memories of that time, that supposed third year sliding, are all blurry and mixed up. I don't know if the Dream Masters ever really existed. But I know there are people who can do all the things I've said above and more, because they're the reason I don't remember that whole third year very well.

So yeah. Actually, people who could do that would be a hell of a big deal. I wouldn't blame a local PD for being terrified of them, and not knowing what to do.


Re: Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome

Why wouldn't you go home to your parents as soon as you (thought you) were home, instead of just calling them on the phone?

The whole thing just seemed so... suddenly overwhelming. How they'd react, seeing their faces, seeing them cry... trying to explain it all while we all broke down. It's selfish and cowardly, I know, but I just didn't think I could take it. Especially since I left without telling them, and that's always weighed heavy on me.

I know they must've felt much worse. But I thought if I could break it to them on the phone at least, it'd give me time to face them.

There was another thing. Being with the same people for all that time, only having them, relying on them... they really do come to feel like your world. Even if I was home, I didn't want separating from them to be the first thing I did. They'd become like an extension of me. It seems irrational, because I could've just called Quinn on the phone any time, but sliding makes you forget those things. It made me feel like if I let them out of my sight, I might never see them again.

And besides, in a way, they were my family, and I was celebrating with them. Of course I let my family at home know as soon as I could. But sharing this moment with these three people I loved was important to me, too.


Re: Obsession

Did you really have a past life with Derek, or did he just send you that vision in order to manipulate you?

...That's a good question. I used to assume it was all true, of course. Now, I don't really know. The more I think about it, it really doesn't ring true as a past life for me. I feel connected to all my other selves, past and present, but that life... really doesn't feel like mine. It feels like a convenient story.

If that's the case, I wonder just how far the manipulation went. I was reading "Romeo and Juliet" at the time, right? The plot of that dream had a lot of echoes of Shakespeare's story in it. Did he influence me so far as to make sure I'd pick up the book at that time, to help my mind latch more easily onto the dream that he'd send? That's... really creepy.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

If you get to the Season 4 episodes, I have a suggestion for how to handle it. :-)

3 (edited by intangirble 2015-10-26 21:35:48)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((Go ahead! I don't mind spoilers. Season 4 is kind of dead to me. :P))

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

The explanation only makes sense if you've read "Revelation" and "Regenesis," so let me know if/when you ever do. :-D

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((Regenesis isn't up yet! AFAIK. But I've read up to Revelation. Still need to read Reminiscence.))

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Ack! I meant "Revelation" and "Reminiscence." "Regenesis" has not even been written yet.

I've been at this too long.

Funny story: In her autobiography, Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa) semi-brags/has regrets about hooking up with Jerry O'Connell!

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((Ahah, wow. Small world, ain't it?

And now I'm caught up with Reminiscence. Which was awesome, and I'd mention how, but - spoilers.

So lay it on me.

And btw, everyone else reading this, you guys can still ask questions!))

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

SPOILERS FOR REBORN


















"Reminiscence" declares that there was the original Tracy Torme timeline for Seasons 1 - 4, but due to the events of "The Unstuck Man," reality was altered and the version of SLIDERS we watched on television was a corrupted, damaged version of the actual events. For example, "Reminiscence" refers to "Paradise Lost," but describes it as an overpopulated world where death had been conquered and birth was seen as an abomination -- indicating that the sliders did experience versions of Seasons 3  - 4 before the Combine warped their lives -- it's just that they were similar concepts and plots executed Torme & Weiss style.

In the original timeline, Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo probably did encounter another Kromagg invasion, encountered an America ruled by religious fundamentalists, accidentally rescued a Kromagg commander, encountered a world dominated by virtual reality, got stuck in a slidecage, saw Quinn and Wade living in a bubble universe, etc.. So you could do Wade's POV of Season 4 by pretending that Torme and Weiss took the same concepts and rewrote the scripts top to bottom.

And then you could do a secondary POV where when asked about the events of Seasons 4 - 5, this alternate Wade from the Geiger-corrupted timeline describes being raped and impregnated and giving birth before she got her brain cut into and was put inside the jukebox from the movie BIG. (I suppose you could always soften it up by saying that the Kromaggs were simply harvesting her eggs and that the Wade in "Requiem" was a clone-slash-cyborg with some of the original Wade's memories and the real Wade escaped before that.)

9 (edited by intangirble 2015-10-27 18:36:05)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((Should I ROT13 this? Maybe I should ROT13 this.


Lrnu, gung'f xvaq bs fvzvyne gb jung V'ir orra tbvat jvgu. V'ir nyernql orra cynlvat Jnqr n ovg va bgure cynprf nyernql, naq gur onpxfgbel fur unf vf gung pregnva riragf qvq gnxr cynpr, ohg gur "pnaba" gvzryvar vf n pbeehcgvba bs gurz gung qrtenqrf shegure naq shegure nf jr trg vagb frnfbaf 3-4. Ng svefg ure oryvrs jnf gung gur "pnaba" gvzryvar jnf n Xebzntt vzcynag, fvapr fur erzrzorerq guvatf obgu jnlf - ohg qhr gb fbzr zrqvgngvir ivfvbaf va juvpu fur rkcrevraprq ure uvture frys be "birefbhy", fur abj oryvrirf gung gur cflpuvp nohfr gur Xebznttf ivfvgrq ba ure nyybjrq ure gb oevrsyl tyvzcfr zhygvcyr nygreangr gvzryvarf, naq tnir ure zrzbevrf sebz gubfr gvzryvarf.

Fb fur'f n yvggyr zrffrq hc nf gvzr tbrf ba, naq fur'yy nqzvg gung. Ure znva cbvag bs qviretrapr vf jurer fur raqrq hc er: gur Xebznttf. Va ure znva gvzryvar, fur jnf fuvccrq gb gur oerrqre pnzc nsgre Erzoenaqg qravrf ure rkvfgrapr ohg chyyrq bhg fbba nsgre orpnhfr gur Xebznttf' nggrzcgf gb cflpuvpnyyl oernx ure erirnyrq gung fur unq na hahfhnyyl fgebat zvaq. Jnagvat vafgrnq gb hfr ure va gurve Plorevnq cebtenz, gurl frag ure gb nabgure pnzc jurer fur jnf fhowrpgrq gb n ynetr onggrel bs zragny rkcrevzragf, nssrpgvat ure zvaq naq pnhfvat ure gb qbhog ure ernyvgl nf Erzzl qvq, ohg nyfb haybpxvat pregnva yngrag cflpuvp gnyragf - fhpu nf jr frr va Qrfreg Fgbez, rgp. Haybpxvat gurfr cbjref jnf gur xrl gb genvavat ure nf n Plorevnq, nf fur jbhyq arrq gb unir na vaperqvoyl fgebat zvaq naq fgebat cflpuvp novyvgvrf gb anivtngr nyy bs fcnprgvzr nf gur Xebznttf jvfurq ure gb qb.

Ubjrire, fur jnf erfphrq ol Dhvaa, Erzzl naq erny!Negheb - gur snxr Negheb univat qvrq ba Znttvr'f jbeyq qhr gb uvf ghzbhe, ab Evpxzna vaibyirq - orsber gurl pbhyq npghnyyl qvffrpg ure, orpnhfr gung jbhyq or njshy.


But if you want to know more, you'll have to ask her. This is her thread, not mine! :))

10 (edited by intangirble 2015-11-02 19:59:36)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

A couple more quick replies here!

Re: Desert Storm

How come you're suddenly psychic in this episode, Wade? That's never come up before.

Actually, it has! Remember the whole psychic dream thing? I've always been a dabbler in the occult - a little more than a dabbler, at times - and you know what they say about people who are into that sort of thing. Or maybe you don't. But a lot of people are drawn to that sort of thing because they've already got tendencies toward seeing other layers of reality. I mean, I'm not talking full-on, burning-bush-style visions in the desert - at least, not back then. But I'm sensitive to things. Maybe that's why I've always believed that there was more to this reality than meets the eye.

Plus, certain experiences will, shall we say, loosen up your mind. Hopefully, in your cases, not so much that your brains fall out. But in our cases... well, we all experienced mental manipulation at the hands of the Kromaggs. That kind of forced telepathic projection, by its very nature, requires the person on the other end to receive. Everyone's got some ability to pick up an image like that, if it's broadcast loudly enough, and when the Kromaggs broadcast those visions and mind tricks to us... well, it's my belief that they opened up channels in our minds that had always been there, but hadn't previously been used. Maybe for me moreso than others.

It's kind of a double-edged sword - but it saved me from the breeder camps. Well, only to be put through Hell in other ways. You win, you lose.


Re: The Weaker Sex

So what's the deal with your, shall we say, political incorrectness here? You don't really believe that a world where men are abused and mistreated is any better than a world where that happens to women, right?

Wow, this was a long time ago. Why's this guy listening to them out of order, anyway?

But yeah, I admit that at the time, I did think that. You've got to understand - I'd never seen a society like that before. I'd only barely imagined the possibility... and I could only see the potential, not the drawbacks. Like the Professor said, maybe I was a little drunk on my own sudden power.

But... when you've lived your whole life as the second class, it's easy to be numb to the problems caused by the opposite situation. Maybe you'd think it'd be easier, because we as women can relate to a society of oppressed men. But when you've been hurt by it your entire life, all you can think about in the moment is that the pain is gone. The chains are gone. You're free. That does tend to make people a little intoxicated. People say they want equality, but when it comes down to it, what most people want is just not to suffer, themselves. I've been guilty of that narrowmindedness too.

I don't think I ever did properly apologize to the Professor. Though it might seem a little fake now, after I made him my slave for nine days and all.

...That said, it was so much fun.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

I really love these Q&A's! smile

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

You know, Ms. Welles, I rather thought enslaving the Professor was going ridiculously far no matter what the terms of your bet. I was surprised at you. I know the Professor is a pompous ass who was in desperate need of being taken down, but I think you really should have let him off after a day of servitude at most. Human slavery is no joke, young lady.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

ireactions wrote:

You know, Ms. Welles, I rather thought enslaving the Professor was going ridiculously far no matter what the terms of your bet. I was surprised at you. I know the Professor is a pompous ass who was in desperate need of being taken down, but I think you really should have let him off after a day of servitude at most. Human slavery is no joke, young lady.

((You made her laugh. ;))

Oh, c'mon, it was all in fun. It wasn't like I made him do anything seriously violating life and liberty... and he learned he's better at a few things than he thought he'd be. Backrubs, for example. And making tea. You know what they say about the English, they sure know how to make tea.

Besides, a bet's a bet. Or are you saying I should've gone easier on the weaker sex? *chuckles*

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

It occurs to me that it may be bizarre to address a 43-year-old woman as "young lady."

One of the things that drives me crazy about how women are treated in the media: they're presented as objects for men to win and possess without agency of their own. As though the only point of interest in a woman's life is how they serve as a love interest. It is so frustrating. So exasperating. So infuriating. But I have to ask -- what is the deal with you constantly falling in love with guys named Deric/Derek?

Also, are you still interested in Quinn at all? I ask because I'm working on a dramatization of your life -- or maybe it's one of your doubles, I can't tell anymore -- and I can't figure out if you and Quinn are a couple or not for the final installment.

I find myself writing two versions of each scene; one where you're platonic friends and one where you've coupled up between installments, but it's no big deal and it just means you sit next to each other in most of your scenes together and there's a scene where you're in bed together while discussing Plot. In the platonic version, you have the same discussion in the kitchen before going off to separate residences.

But I'm not sure which one to use. I don't even know if you (or your double, not sure who we're talking about here) have even been *dating* since you got home in 2001. It seems absurd to think that you haven't known love, romance and intimacy in the 14 years since you (or your double) got home. But I hadn't any space to address it.

So let me ask you -- what do you want? Do you want to be a spinster, perpetually single and superbly happy? Do you want to be engaged to Quinn? Do you want to be otherwise involved? Dating different people casually?

Personally, I feel that whether Quinn and Wade are together or seeing other people -- they're friends and comrades and that will never change. It doesn't matter to me.

Well. I guess it might matter to Quinn. Dude hasn't had a date since 1996 -- although dating his former grade school teacher and dating a female version of himself may have left him permanently scarred. Let's face it; if he's not with you, he's with nobody. That's the curse of being Quinn Mallory. Wade Welles has plenty of options.

So, the Deric/Derek thing? Oh, and did you actually have sex with Wilkins on the world where the Russians rule America or did you just make out? Ian McDuffie and Dan Kurtzke say you totally did but Jim Ford (and I) thought you just kissed.

Swear to God this is the only time I'll ask you about your sex life.

15 (edited by intangirble 2015-11-03 19:07:44)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Oh - don't worry, I'm not shy. But I'm also not 43, thank you very much. ((She laughs.)) So my answers might be a little off from what you're trying to portray.

I'll explain that a little, I guess... to the extent that I can explain it. Quinn and the Professor always used to say - sliding's never time travel. So I guess it's one of those shifted-timeline things... some worlds turning a little slower than others. The Van Meer effect, or whatever it was.

Anyway - I haven't exactly been tracking time well since the All-Inclusive Kromagg Vacation Extravanganza, but I'd estimate that it's been - three years, I guess, since I left home. Maybe four. It's hard to remember.

But in this world, it's suddenly 2015! What gives? Like, "Back to the Future" isn't actually in the future any more? I'm really tripping on the new technology, though. I hear a smart phone made today has the same processing power as the computer that sent man to the Moon in 1969! That's wild!


But you didn't wanna hear me talk about cell phones. You want to hear about Quinn.

((She holds up her left hand, where a ring glitters on her finger.))

Yeah, after the whole Kromagg ordeal I guess he finally wised up to where his bread was buttered. ((She rolls her eyes a little and laughs.)) It sure took him long enough. I'd almost given up on him. Not that I ever could. I've tried and tried, believe me. I'm no damsel in distress needing her prince to come save her. But whatever threads of fate tie this multiverse together, they keep on pulling me back.

But yeah... I hope I'd still be with him twenty years down the line. Not that I object to casual, either. I've always had that Sixties attitude to things... that was something Quinn and I got stuck on, actually. I want to be with him, he's... he's my world. Him and the Professor and Remmy, they're my world. But I've also enjoyed being a free spirit, free to date around, to explore who I am and who other people are. But if I have to give up that for him, then... it's worth it. And - I do want to have children someday. That really requires a person to settle. I wouldn't put any children of mine through that.

I could never be a spinster! I honestly don't think I could be truly fulfiled living a single life. I'm a people person, a bonding, connecting, sharing person. I need others in my life... not to complete me, I'm complete myself, but to broaden me, to show me new perspectives, to share those perspectives with me so I'm not seeing them alone. That's one of the things I really fell for about Quinn. He always had something new to teach me.

But yeah. Even if he didn't want me like that - we'd always be friends. More than friends... comrades, like you said. (Heh. Gives me flashbacks to that Soviet world...) We'll always and forever have each other's backs. No questions asked. And if I weren't with him... I wouldn't stay alone.

So I guess there's your answer. If you actually take it into account when you write... I mean, you probably are writing about one of my doubles. And her story's every bit as important to tell too, I'm sure. But hey, if I did actually get a little input of my own into this - it'd mean a lot to me that I got to tell at least some of the story myself. Always the reported-on, never the reporter, you know? Well, except for that one time...


So, Deric/Derek... heh, you know, I'd never noticed. Nah, I don't think there's a thing. I guess you could say they both appealed to my sense of wonder... well, at first. I mean, Deric was an android! Would you pass up the opportunity to kiss an android if you got the chance? ...Okay, maybe don't answer that. But, I mean - to see technology come to life before your eyes, to see life coming from what we think of as nothing, isn't that kind of alluring? Or is it just me?

Maybe I've been too entranced by Quinn's Big Bang speeches. (Insert your own "Big Bang" joke here.)

As for Derek... I don't know. The whole past life thing bowled me over at first. I'm a sucker for that stuff, you know? Connections deeper than skin. For all Cory and Tom - and you, heh - make a good point that I do go through the guys... I'm not looking for just sex. I'm looking for someone who knows me, body, mind and soul.

A spiritual dimension is something that's always felt lacking in my relationships. I think I tried to find it with him. Big mistake. I've never met someone who so flagrantly disrespected who I was as a person, impressing everything he wanted onto me without thought for how it would make me feel... I really hope he finds his way. I don't wish him harm as a person. But some part of me wishes I never met him.

Wilkins... nah, we just made out. I was too torn up over Quinn to really go for it. I'm pretty sure that's what tipped him off that I wasn't "his" Wade, actually. I couldn't bring myself to go all the way. He was a really good kisser, though. ((She laughs.))

Whew! That was a long one. But fun! Anything I missed?

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Alright. I suppose that's clearly a decision.

**

INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
Wade is asleep in bed, face down in the pillow. She reaches towards the other side of the bed, reaching for something that isn't there. She suddenly stiffens. Gradually drifts into wakefulness.

She rolls over and sits up to find Quinn sitting up in bed as well, staring straight ahead at the blank wall in front of their bed. Wade looks at the blank wall with confusion.

WADE: "Whuh -- where's our Olitski painting -- ?"
QUINN: "Under the bed. It was distracting me."

Wade rubs her eyes.

WADE: "Distracting you from... ?"
QUINN: "The problem of co-existing multiverses is, for all intents and purposes, a simple lack of correlation between quantum mechanics and the classical kinematics of opposing stationary and transitional systems. The Professor's wrong -- we can fix this -- we just need to determine a quantum kinematic description that doesn't require deterministic causal prediction."

Wade stares blankly at Quinn. Then she reaches for the night stand and grabs a volume sitting next to the lamp. It's a copy of QUANTUM MECHANICS FOR DUMMIES. She opens the book and flips to the index, then flips to the middle of the book. After reading a few passages --

WADE: "I don't think the Professor was saying you can't do it -- he was just saying you need to prepare for the possibility that -- "
QUINN: "We're sliders, for God's sake! We have no business saying determinism's the only acceptable outcome for configuration and momentum spaces!"

Wade is lost again. She flips back to the index of the book. Flips again to a section closer to the beginning. Her fingers trace over the pages --

WADE: "Well. Okay. But just because you're practicing fire safety doesn't mean you don't maintain extinguishers. I mean -- "
QUINN: "Wade -- just because relativity and quantum theory can't be incorporated into a single unified theory doesn't rule out the rigorous and repeated empirical evidence that they're both true. The other Quinn solved the equation by declaring that a paradox justified their mutual co-existence through -- "

Wade closes the book and whacks Quinn in the shoulder with it.

QUINN: "Ow!"

Wade gets up from the bed and heads towards the door. As she opens it --

WADE: "I feel like this isn't a conversation. I feel like you're just talking to yourself. I'm going back to my room, see you in the morning, I'll see if the Professor's awake and have him come here; clearly, that's who you'd rather be in bed with right now."
QUINN: "Ask him if he's considered looking at this from the perspective of a mesoscopic reality -- "

QUANTUM MECHANICS FOR DUMMIES is seen flying through the air. It hits Quinn in the chest.

CUT TO:

INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT

We see Laurel and Rembrandt standing on the stairs to the hall, both holding ice cream sundaes in hand. They're at the top of the stairs just as Wade comes out of Quinn's bedroom. Wade freezes for a moment, spotting Rembrandt and Laurel, then lets out a tired groan and turns away down the hall.

Quinn pokes his head out into the hallway.

QUINN: "Wade! Wait! I'm sorry! I'm sorry -- "
WADE: "You are sorry. Ugh. Good night."

Quinn turns to see Laurel smirking at him. Rembrandt looks carefully impassive.

LAUREL: "Blew it again, huh?"
QUINN: "I've got a lot on my mind -- "
LAUREL: "I'm starting to see why you haven't had a date since 1996."
QUINN: "That is not true! I've had dates since -- " (he suddenly pauses, performing mental calculations) "Oh my God. It is true!"

He looks at Laurel with alarm.

QUINN: "Wait! How do you know that?" (looking to Rembrandt) "How does she -- "

Laurel's smirk widens, Rembrandt looks apologetic. Quinn fumes at Rembrandt.

REMBRANDT: (gesturing at Laurel) "She made me, man! She made me!"
QUINN: "How did she make you!?"
REMBRANDT: "I asked her if she wanted to hear a great Q-Ball story! She said yes!"
LAUREL: "Dated your middle school teacher, huh? And then you dated yourself -- "
QUINN: (horrified) "I did not!" (beat) "It was the other way around."

Laurel begins to cackle with terrifying laughter as she proceeds down the hall, Rembrandt beginning to giggle as well as he follows.

REMBRANDT: "Let me tell you, Laurel -- there was this time he almost gave up on sliding for this lady snake charmer!"
LAUREL: "Oh my God, I have to hear this."

Quinn watches them go down the hall.

QUINN: (shouting after them) "That does not count! That was an altered timeline! I wasn't myself! Those were super-intelligent snakes! The Professor had been shot and blown up after getting his brain sucked out!"

Arturo comes down the hall, regarding Quinn and his remarks curiously.

ARTURO: "I begin to question the wisdom of us all residing within the same domicile."

**

I guess this was a long-winded way of saying thanks.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

It's a lovely thank you. ((She smiles.)) I really appreciate this.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

So, what's your hair like these days? And why'd it suddenly go red in Year Three? And what was up with going from the eccentrically formal outfits to the leather jackets and LA model apparel? And how does Wade Welles dress today?

19 (edited by intangirble 2015-11-06 01:42:03)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((She laughs, awkwardly. Rubs her hand through close-cropped hair that resembles, more than anything, a slightly grown-out military buzz cut.))

Funny you should ask. I've been trying to grow it back to its usual length ever since... well, ever since the Kromaggs. Apparently that whole, "sticking electrodes on your scalp to monitor how much psychic trauma we're doing to you" deal requires a prison-regulation shave.

I can't say I'm fond of it. I feel like a cancer patient. But when it grows out, I'll probably keep it more or less back at the length you're used to seeing. I haven't had actual long hair since high school. Cut it in college and never looked back.

((She looks thoughtful.)) Red, huh? Wonder where they got that idea. I mean, it's not like we had much time for keeping up with that sort of thing while sliding... much less money. You really think I could afford to dye my hair every few weeks when we're living off Remmy's street-corner performances and the change someone left in a bathroom stall? We're lucky we never had to resort to outright theft.

Well, not often. Sometimes Quinn and I'd hack a vending machine if we got desperate, but that was it. Nothing big.

I guess if it went red, it was probably from the constant sun once we started sliding to LA. There is a little Irish heritage in my family - you probably guessed that from "Kathleen" and "Kelly" - so I guess it has a tendency to redden. I honestly wasn't paying much attention to my looks by that point.

As for the short skirts... not exactly my first choice, believe me. But it was hot as Hell out there every day and even thrift stores in LA tend to go for the starlet look. I put together what was practical for the weather, with a jacket for when it got dark. If you've never been to the desert, it might be scorching during the day, but temperatures drop quickly at night.

...And what do you mean, "eccentrically formal?" ((She gives you a look like she wants to swat you with something, but in jest.)) I liked those outfits, thank you very much! Actually, if I'm honest, one of my favorite outfits I ever got on a slide was back on that hippie world, at the commune. They gave me this absolutely gorgeous dress that made me feel like the high priestess of some sort of earth religion.

Man, I loved that world. A little part of me wanted to stay, but Quinn would've killed me if I'd stuck him in the eternal Sixties. I swear, for all he's a genius that man does not appreciate anything he can't pin down ten different ways and measure. Some things are just ineffable, you know?

But you were talking about clothes. I guess these days - not much different than I did on some of those early slides, with a bit of an update towards 2015 styles. Jeans or slacks, some kind of feminine but not too Maggie-like *cough* Freudian slip, sorry, I was trying to say "revealing" *cough*- top or blouse, and a jacket, mostly. I do still tend toward things that're a little on the hippie side. Earth tones, beads, cute knits. A lot of that stuff's coming back in fashion right now actually. And since it's actually sweater weather finally, I can bundle up and get snuggly, which I always like doing. It's very soothing.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

I meant eccentrically formal in that you sometimes wore what might be considered office-attire, but with some unusual colours or flourishes like a neck-scarf or a blazer with pipe-lining. Sorry to hear about the buzz cut.

If you and Quinn were spending more time together and he needed to get some new clothes, how would you have him dress these days? I get the sense he'd take the path of least resistance with clothes. Would you have him still in flannel and jeans? Or would you have him move on to the sporty shirts and sweaters and leather jackets that he favoured when the geographic spectrum stablizer had you all landing in LA? Or something else? Blazer and sweater-vest geek chic?

And how about the hair, hmm? The Quinn I've been working with has experienced a, shall we say, psychological reversion and he's back to wearing his hair the way he did when he was living a lonely life in his basement workshop and rarely remembered to get it cut. But the last I saw him, he was reunited with Wade again. Do you think you'd encourage him to get it trimmed back to the shorter length he had in LA?

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Huh. You mean that stuff wasn't in fashion in this world, even in the Nineties? ((She blinks, and looks a touch embarrassed.)) Well, I guess I learned something new today.

But nah - if anything I'd urge him to grow it out again. It's so adorable! Or, ooh, better yet, if he'd grow it actually long like the Quinn on Q World. If I wanted a slick, suave movie-star type I'd never have been drawn to him. I like when he shows his inner nerd.

(Within reason, of course. I mean, I'd prefer that he remember to shower every day... and shave. You men don't know how good you have it. Kissing a guy with stubble is the worst.

I remember one time I got so frustrated with him that I offered to just sit him down right there and shave his stupid face myself. He said he didn't think he trusted another person that close to his throat with a razor, especially not the way I looked in that moment. I hit him with a pillow. He said it proved his point.)

I admit that blazers and sweater vests would look the cutest on him. He looks ridiculous in leather. He's a physicist, not Marlon Brando. But other than that, I like when he's comfortable in what he's wearing, you know? I wouldn't wanna stuff him in a fancy shirt and slacks if he'd just look like he was itching to get out of it the entire time. I've noticed the more you try to dress him up, the more he ends up just clawing at it all the time like a dog in one of those plastic cones. And I'm sure you know my thoughts on cruelty to animals. ((She chuckles.))

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Hey, so ireactions - heh, calling people by their username reminds me of my days on hacker BBSes - mind if I turn it around and ask you a question?

Nothing too personal or rude, honest. Just - I keep thinking, about what you said before.

"Let's face it; if he's not with you, he's with nobody. That's the curse of being Quinn Mallory. Wade Welles has plenty of options."

I guess I wanted to ask - do you really think that? I guess I can see how you would, and - maybe it's accurate. It's just funny, because for the longest time I always felt like it was the other way round.

The blindness of falling in love, maybe. I feel like Quinn was always charming the women, even when he didn't mean to, but me? I got people's attention, but it never felt like it was for the right reasons. And it always ended in some kind of disaster. Other than with Quinn, I feel like I've never had a date that didn't crash and burn horribly... whether it was getting charmed by a psychic psychopath or falling for a guy who's secretly undead.

I guess it looks like I get around, and in some ways I do, but it's never satisfying. No, don't worry, I'm not oversharing about my sex life, I mean - people like me, but they don't like me for me. They like me for how I look or what they can get out of me, or who I could be if they had control over me. It's like no one sees through to who I really am. Except Quinn, and Remmy, and maybe the Professor. They're the only ones who get me.

And yet - this is me being honest now, in a way my feminist friends would kill me for. But I've always had trouble feeling like I was good enough for Quinn. The way he thinks, the way his mind works - it's something I can only watch in awe. He doesn't know it, but he has so much. He could do anything he put his mind to... he could win anyone he wants, if he just let himself. And then there's me, trying to keep up. Trying to do something, or be something, that stands out, that's more than average. And I never feel like I'm enough.

So it's funny when you say that - I guess it looks like that from the outside, heh. That he's the shy loner nerd who'd always be alone, and I'm the - what do you guys call it? The manic pixie dream girl, who's got it all. But that's not how I feel on the inside. In many ways, I'm still the awkward nerd I was back in middle school. On the outside I look like I have it together, but I don't trust myself at all.

Just musing.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

{{First, something for intangirble. Matt Hutaff of Earth Prime sent me a box of SLIDERS clippings from the Sci-Fi Channel's press office. He never had time to go through the 2,000 clippings. I reviewed the material and found 12 items of interest for future addition to EP.COM's article archives.

{{I just wanted to share this for intangirble first -- a clipping where Sabrina Lloyd is interviewed and reacts to the rape camp.

http://s16.postimg.org/yqery5v8h/sabrina_lloyd_on_the_breeder_camp.jpg}}

[SLIDERS REBORN SPOILERS. READ IT HERE FIRST?]

Hi, Wade. How's the hair growing? It may be hip-length by the time you finish reading this message.

From what I can tell, I'm not currently working with your Quinn. I'm working with a different Quinn. Your Quinn appears to be 23 - 24, engaged with random sliding and he may or may not overcome the demons of his past. Both our Quinns have the same origin.

Quinn skipped two grades and was smaller than his peers, ostracized for his intellectual prowess, abused and threatened. When 11-year-old Quinn approached his father for help, his father refused to intervene. Quinn screamed at his father that he hated him, Mr. Mallory withheld any response and left -- and those were the last words Quinn ever spoke to his father. Mr. Mallory died in a car crash afterwards.

Later, Quinn was attacked by one of the bullies. Quinn defended himself with a baseball bat and permanently injured the boy. Quinn blamed himself for his father's death and for nearly crippling Brady.

From these incidents, Quinn developed an instinct for withdrawing and isolating himself -- except in one instance. He made an exception for Daelin. There is no data consistent across parallel universes with regards to Daelin except in one area: she left him. Not by choice; her parents moved -- but she left him and Quinn, once again alone, closed his heart.

By 1995, Quinn was an incandescently charismatic youth but with humility and restraint. In some instances, this was to his credit: in his classes with Professor Arturo, he pretended not to know the answers a show of solidarity with his classmates.

In others, this was socially damaging and psychologically crippling: despite you being clearly besotted with him, he pretended not to notice. Recall that day you told him you'd scored the hockey tickets, brimming with eagerness and hope for your outing.

Thank back. Was he oblivious? Or was he cautiously avoiding eye-contact and direct engagement? Shielding himself? Because when you two were faced of the end of the world and you told him that there were things about you he didn't know, he leaned in to kiss you, indicating he'd always known how you felt. I noticed, when you visited his house, his mother didn't recognize you and you peered about the interiors with great curiosity -- meaning that despite being on such good terms with Quinn that you would be going to hockey games, he had never invited you over. Not once. Not ever.

Note also that while on friendly terms with his classmates, he was close to none of them and his mother didn't know what he was doing in the basement. And why was Quinn creating sliding in a basement lab? Using discounted Doppler products and junkyard finds? Why not a university lab? Why not as a school project?

Why wasn't Quinn, an athletic, attractive grad student, dating? He likes women; his relationship with his mother shows clear respect for them, he wouldn't have had any trouble appealing to others.

The answer is that Quinn's life was defined by his secrets. Distance let him keep his secrets. But it also deepened the damage and led to the carelessness and recklessness of the first slide where he got himself and three others lost.

I think your Quinn and mine have consistent adventures up to 1996 or so. Our Quinns most definitely grew during the first two years of sliding; the boy who was overwhelmed by the Soviet World is not the commanding and clever man who trounced Logan St. Clair and Prototronics with ease as he forced them to release you from their custody and engineered an escape.

I don't know what happened next to your Quinn. Maybe he continued to grow and advance, becoming a master of the interdimension and seeking ways and means to topple injustice, bring equality and freedom to world after world and solve every single problem of civilization with knowledge and ideas. Maybe he got you all home but continued to be driven by curiosity and wanderlust and never stopped exploring. Maybe he created a team of sliders to continue exploring while he moved into a different situation where you and he could start a family with a stable environment. Or maybe he became a tax accountant.

Regardless, the man who mentored his younger self and addressed his guilt and remorse was now prepared to fall in love again someday.

What happened to my Quinn, however, was more unfortunate. He learned of a Kromagg plot to collapse the multiverse and restore it with only Kromagg-approved variations on reality.

Quinn set out to stop them and succeeded, but at a terrible price: in 2001, the multiverse was destroyed and Quinn only managed to rebuild a portion of it; every Earth in existence now had an identical history up to March 22, 1995 (or, in your timeline, September 27, 1994) with variations in history existing only after that point. To make matters worse, no new Earths would split from post-1995 decision points.

Quinn was able to send his friends back home, and with the shift in reality, home had never been invaded. His friends could resume their lives after a six year absence. But Quinn discovered that the 1995-limitation had damaged the multiverse. The injustices and failings of Quinn's home Earth were now multiplied to infinity without divergence or alternative.

The concept of sliding was broken and Quinn would now devote the rest of his life to alleviating the harm he'd caused.

Once again, Quinn's life was defined by a shameful secret. A secret well beyond misplaced guilt over his father's death in an automobile accident or injuring an attacker in self-defence. A secret for which he despised himself, a secret he could not bring himself to share with anyone.

And fourteen years later, Quinn has degenerated back into the state he was in when you first met him: isolated, withdrawn, alone except for his mother and even she is kept at a distance. And every failure to create new universes has made him pull farther and farther back. He's dressing the way he did in 1995 (flannel and jeans), even has the same hair -- which is attractive, but also indicates his mental downturn.

Could he have met someone new? He couldn't let anyone into his life, because if he did, he would have to reveal his secret. It would never be an equal relationship and Quinn would never risk letting anyone get close enough to have to expose himself.

Would he have dated casually, had the odd liaison? Perhaps -- but given his bedroom is now enmeshed with a recreation of his basement lab, Quinn clearly set up his life so that it would be impossible to ever bring anyone home.

Could Quinn have just gone the route of casual sex with bringing dates to a room at the Dominion Hotel or the Motel 12? He may have considered it, but ultimately chosen to maintain his emotional and physical seclusion. He wasn't going to look up Daelin; he wasn't going to track down Holly the Chandler-manager. Quinn, for all his faults, never lies to himself. He was alone. He accepted it.

There's really only one person whom Quinn might let into his life and his heart at this point. Only one person who might pierce his boundaries and barriers. Just one.

Which is why Quinn so carefully avoided you (or rather, your double) for 14 years.

That said, I have some hope for Quinn -- the recent discovery that he has a daughter forced him to open up. He wasn't going to isolate himself from his child; he wasn't going to deny her a father or himself a daughter -- and opening himself up to his kid will force him to open up to others. But this Quinn is so fundamentally damaged and so entrenched in interdimensional matters -- I have serious doubts he could relate to a 'normal' person at this point.

Anyway. I assume the 1995-limitation will be addressed seeing as we're having this conversation. And I wouldn't assume that your Quinn has the deficiencies of my Quinn. (I imagine he has plenty of his own.)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((Wow. That's quite a find there - and thanks for thinking of me.

Given the actual nature of the behind-the-scenes interactions that led to that, I think she's being extremely tactful for the press when she says she doesn't think it was malicious. She had to know it was exactly that. But still, wow. I never knew she commented on it. I'm glad she wasn't too upset at least.))


Hey there. It's still pretty fuzzy, but it's getting better. I'm glad I only have a short cut to grow back in.

And - I'm gonna second that "wow" from intangirble there, heh. You've sure given me some stuff to think about, too.

I never looked at Quinn like that - never put the pieces together. But what you're saying makes sense. I guess I had it right before when I said I was blinded by my feelings for him. It never really occurred to me that - the way he'd set up his life was almost deliberately designed to keep people out.

I blamed a lot of it on myself, I guess. Of course I never got to go over to his house - I mean, why should I have been invited? He probably just thought of me as a pest, the mousy coworker from Doppler who so obviously wanted to unravel his mysteries and a whole lot more, just like every other woman on campus with functioning eyesight and half a brain. If he didn't let me into his life, into his thoughts, that was just proof that he had more important things going on - that he had good reasons to keep his mysteries close to his chest. And that made him attractive, in that unreachable sort of way.

I guess I've always gone for that type. The ones who give hints that they're more than they seem. Usually, they turn out to be that indeed... just not the way I expected.

But - you're right. He still doesn't open up, even now. He tells me about his projects, his ideas... he tells me about the stars, the planets, the way things work. It's fascinating. But they're all things external to him. I don't get inside the head of the real Quinn Mallory - or perhaps I should say I get inside his head, but I don't get inside his heart. And - by the fact that I had to ask you that question, I guess you already knew that.

As for what happened to my Quinn? That's a good question. He hasn't really told me that, either. Not that he'd be comfortable with me saying much if he had. He's not much for having his personal life spread all over the Internet for complete strangers. Not like me - always talking too much, the kind of person who'd think to serialize her diaries.

I only know what happened to me and Remmy. Being passed around between Kromagg camps like baseball cards as they tried to break us, figure out what made us tick. Apparently I'm an interesting psychic specimen; who knew? They dropped the whole breeding plan pretty fast when they figured out they could make me into a psychic weapon and remote viewer instead. Thankfully, I managed to hold out against their mental assaults until the others found me - exhausted, but never broken, and training with every moment of my not-inconsiderable spare time so I could fight back if I got the chance.

So yeah, I know some funky Kromagg martial arts moves now. ((Kro Maga? - intangirble)) And I was never happier to see Remmy, alive and well - I thought he was dead. They told me, a thousand times over in lurid detail, the things they'd done to him. None of the stories added up, but it didn't matter. I was too far gone. I believed, in my heart, that he was dead.

But I don't really know what happened during that time, while I was gone. Oh, I mean, I've heard the heroics - the whole, "fought off an evil regime of religious-fundamentalist slave drivers using only frozen turkeys," or something like that. But I don't know how he felt about any of it. I only know that my loss impacted him enough that he decided he wanted to marry me - and fast! He tried to sell me on doing it right there and then. I guess after all we'd been through... but I needed time. The Kromaggs messed up my head so badly... it's still hard to tell what's real and what's not. It sounds strange, but I had to trust that what he was saying was really what he was saying, you know? That it wasn't just another Kromagg-induced hallucination, a way to weaken my mind so they could go in for the kill.

I know he doesn't want to lose me - that he's scared he might, that almost losing me made him realize he couldn't deal with that. But beyond that, I don't know. And I think it's long past time I asked.

Thank you.


What a tangled web of meta-awareness we weave, huh? That you can know - from talking to me now - that there's hope in the multiverse; I'm glad to provide that. I'm only sad to hear that your Quinn is still torturing himself over guilt... not like that's not anything I've seen before.

And he's right. Because I know in any world... ((She thinks back to the events of "The Young and the Relentless.")) Well, all right, any world in which I'm sane... I'd make it my mission to pierce those barriers. To keep him from destroying himself, whether through isolation or - some other way. And I have the advantage that I'm not "normal," either. I've been through so much of this with him, seen so much of this because of him. I couldn't turn away, not now, no matter what awful secrets he revealed to me. And I think he knows that. That he can depend on me. Which is exactly why he doesn't want to.

((...She touches her hair.)) Nope. Still not hip length. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

I'm 'hearing' a lot of anger in her words, to be honest. A cold and icy fury.

"People often ask me if I miss doing SLIDERS and I tell them no, I don't miss it."

{Of course I miss SLIDERS. I miss the family atmosphere. I miss John and Cleavant and Jerry. I miss the way the producers cared about giving my character some backbone and making her less the love interest. I don't really miss Vancouver -- so cold -- but I miss SLIDERS and I miss the fans as well.

{But I don't miss what the show turned into. I don't miss a show with abominable scripts and indifferent producers who see the making of a TV show as an expense account for binge drinking sessions. I don't miss Kari Wuhrer's screeching insecurity. I don't miss the cave set. I don't miss the horifically misogynistic environment.

{I had to get the hell out of there.}

"I went as far with that show as I could and I wasn't being challenged as much as I wanted to be in my life.""

{I mean, we have producers treating TV like it's something to make between binge drinking sessions. They turned John's exit into an on-set rock concert for two weeks. The scripts are a mess with contradictory dialogue. When actors blow lines, the directors don't care to get another take.

{They don't want to do anything that's even slightly challenging or difficult, they don't care if the performances need more time, if the continuity between shots is off, if the sound editing isn't done, if characters' names aren't mentioned -- they don't care. I could sleepwalk through the scene and they'd be satisfied. I don't want to work with people like that.

{I had no reason to stay.}

"I just felt that I wasn't getting anything out of it anymore.""

{I was so depressed. So sad. Look, let's be frank; nothing I do will ever matter as much as SLIDERS because nothing I do will ever have this kind of devoted, loyal fanbase. Sean Connery's always going to be a spy and I'll always be a slider. But showing up to work for people who don't care about the material we're producing or the audience to whom we're appealing and who treat women like sexual commodities -- I just couldn't live like that anymore. I'm sorry that's what the show became.}

"So I left and no, I won't ever look back."

{I feel sorry for Kari Wuhrer. I'm never going to be the Maxim covergirl, Playboy's not going to call -- and yeah, casting directors think teenaged boys might crush on me and that definitely helps with finding work -- but I'm hired for my acting, not because my bosses have sexual fantasies about me. Well. If they do, it's not the only reason.

{The only reason Kari can pay her rent is because the people who hire her are masturbating to her. Nobody likes her work or her talent or her screen presence or her approach to material or the way she considers a scene or her mannerisms or her line deliveries or her sense of comic timing -- and if SLIDERS is the right place for her, then it's not the right place for me.

{That's not the work I want to do; that's not what I want on my reel and filmography. I want to work for the Aaron Sorkins, not the David Peckinpahs.}

"I'm in a breeding camp? I have to say I was a little surprised about that. But it's okay. They had to get rid of my character somehow. I don't think there was anything malicious about it."

{I think it's sad that they did that to my character. I think it's sad they did that to the fans because that's who they really hurt.

{It couldn't hurt me. I don't work there anymore. And I think that's a pretty clear indicator of how toxic that set is for a woman -- so the fact that Kari thrives there is really tragic.

{That said, I didn't rule out doing a few episodes, but I sure as hell did after the rape camp plot. If they ever asked me to come back to the show, I would set my asking price well above what they'd pay. So all they did was sever any possibility of a future professional relationship. Sure hope they don't come looking for a guest-appearance from me!}

Anyway. I think Quinn needs to have a talk with you, Wade. I'm a little surprised that you agreed to marry him when you don't really know where he is right now.

On my end of the multiverse -- Wade is 43-years-old and got her Master's Degree in Social Work and spent years working as a school guidance counselor. Currently, she's switched her focus to counseling people dealing with interdimensional issues. Pretty heavy caseload. A lot of work and responsibilities and running around different offices in San Francisco. She sees Quinn in the evenings and at meetings and they have dinner a couple nights a week, but they lead separate lives with separate goals -- and they spin into each other's orbits now and then.

Wade would also like to be a stepmother. Laurel laughs at her for this.

26 (edited by intangirble 2015-11-18 18:08:15)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((Huh. That's an interesting deconstruction. I'm not really good at reading between the lines of people's words like that, but - I can see it, given the background I know. -Which is pretty much exclusively thanks to you and Temporal Flux, so thanks to you guys again for that.

One vibe I get very strongly from Sabrina is that she knows how to be professional. That means being diplomatic. She won't say anything on the record that would incriminate anyone, even if she feels it. I can see why she wouldn't have wanted to say all that stuff.

Btw, edited the topic name in case Cory and Tom didn't notice there was some commentary on their episodes too. Even though it's mostly us chattering now. :) ))


((Wade looks a little - stopped in her tracks. Like you hit something very close to home. A sliver of doubt.))

I- well. ((She seems for a moment like she might almost clam shut on this one, change the subject. But she takes a deep breath and rolls with it.)) I guess some part of me was surprised too. The part that was like - "this is so sudden," and "does he really mean it? Why is he saying this now?"

But - I couldn't say no. Not after all this time, all this dancing around, never admitting, never confessing. It was the first time he'd ever shown me commitment. ((She laughs softly.)) I guess that's probably not a good sign, huh? But...

((She lets the words trail off, shakes her head slowly. She's done with this conversation. Anything else she could say would just make her sound needy, overly raw.))

--People with interdimensional issues, huh. ((She forces a little smile, pushes her hair back off her face. Tries to brighten up.)) Yeah, that - that doesn't surprise me. It's been hard on all of us. The things you see, you experience, that you can't tell anyone... it gets very isolating. I mean, I assume you saw how it went with Remmy. You can't just go see a regular psychiatrist and start talking about these things, they'd say you were nuts.

It actually - means a lot to me, you talking to me like this. ((She lets out a small laugh.)) Strange pair, huh? Here you are, writing about my double's life from a universe where it was all a television show. And here's me. Being me. ((She gives a little shrug and makes a goofy face.)) Either way, I don't get to talk to many people any more. It's nice.

A stepmother specifically, huh? I mean, I do want children. I'm guessing Quinn plays a particular role in this.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

[SLIDERS REBORN SPOILERS. READ IT HERE FIRST.]

I've yet to commit myself to the idea that I'm writing about your double from a TV show version. It's possible that I'm reconstructing events based on eyewitness accounts, documented evidence and the Professor's blinkered and egotistical version of events. Given the pan-dimensional nature of the events of SLIDERS REBORN involves two altered timelines that culminated in the city of San Francisco being merged with 800 parallel versions of itself and then being attacked a year later by pancake parasites, fat-craving zombies, animal-human hybrids, rockstar vampires, radioactive slugs, Dream Masters, super-intelligent snakes, dinosaurs... and toy cars with laser cannons, very odd... anyway. For all we know, this is merely the three-dimensional perspective on a cosmically indescribable event taking shape in a five-part documentary in which noted actors Jerry O'Connell, John Rhys-Davies and Cleavant Derricks play Quinn, the Professor and Rembrandt, Taissa Farmiga plays Laurel Hills and Angie Everhart plays you if Sabrina Lloyd won't come back from Uganda.

Or I'm just completely insane. Who can tell? Anyway -- on my end of the multiverse, Quinn has a daughter. A bratty half-pint of a 15-year-old. She's sardonic and curious and troubled and anomalous and gay. You're not her mother, though -- she's the product of Quinn's awkward fumbling with that Jane Hills lady on that Earth where all the men died off and in-vitro wasn't available for... uh, some reason. Given your double's relationship with Quinn developing, she feels some responsibility to Laurel -- but she also finds Laurel an uncontrollable hellraiser. But that's not important!

Currently, I've compiled my perspective on events into three screenplays and a novella. One long-time follower of your exploits informed me that he very much enjoyed the material and felt the characters truly came alive, that he could hear their voices so distinctly, so vividly. He could hear all of you. Quinn. Rembrandt. Arturo. And of course, Wade. He enjoyed the scripts so much he wrote a TV Tropes page on the story. And he wrote little descriptions of Quinn, Rembrandt and Arturo -- how Quinn is the Guile Hero who bypasses violence with cleverness. How Rembrandt is the incompetent who turns out to be more capable than he realizes. How Arturo is so smart he figures out Quinn's master plan without Quinn ever verbalizing it.

And then he got to Wade -- and he couldn't identify anything remotely unique about your portrayal in SLIDERS REBORN. Certainly, he'd enjoyed your character and you'd had many amusing lines and hilarious observations and helped save the world -- but he couldn't point to any specific goals or actions that reflected something unique and individual to you and you alone. You were funny. But all the sliders were funny, so in terms of what you brought to the table, you were The Girl.

This embarrassed me so deeply that I spent weeks wandering the streets wondering what exactly defines Wade Welles, what makes her stand out when standing next to Quinn, Rembrandt and Arturo. The only thing that came to mind is that she's been, in some documentaries and reconstructions, played by Sabrina Lloyd. That's what defines you. Which seems to be something similar to the problem you're having in that you have no idea what you bring to the table in your relationship with Quinn.

I finally decided that your primary character trait would be a streak of relentless practicality that allows you to execute absurd and difficult ideas in grounded and realistic terms matched with an aptitude for resolving interpersonal conflict that completely eludes Quinn, introverted little weirdo that he is. An ability to delegate effectively and also produce practical application to otherwise theoretical concepts. It troubles me that I could only figure out what your deal is by Part Five of Five and find ways to demonstrate it in order to complete your double's arc... but better late than never?

So maybe you can also put this to use in sorting out your stuff with Quinn.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Being Gay on a World without Men would be almost ubiquitous.... Even for traditionally Hetero Women. No Men afterall.
I imagine she would have difficulty understanding and relating to the Male Gender also.
They might seem very Alien.
Would this Daughter be exclusively Gay Genetically Predisposed/Hormonally Influenced or more Situtional and Cultural? Would she wrestle with her Sexuallity when Confronted by the Male Gender? Would she feel confusion? Doubt? Curiosity? Fear?

Interesting ideas and possibilities. These are some of the things I love about Sliding. Not just the Fashion or Geography or Technolgical Level of Development but the Cultural, Societal, Psychological impacts too.

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Hmmm. This reminds me. Back in the day, we had a betting pool going on whether or not Wade was bisexual.

... if Wade would care to settle it, this would mean the winner would receive a significant sum sufficient for a matinee movie and a small soda. :-D

30 (edited by intangirble 2015-11-20 16:18:49)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((She laughs, heartily.)) Oh gosh. Where'd that come from? ((She touches her head.)) Is it the hair? It's the hair, isn't it.

Well, sure, I can settle that one right now. I'll be frank (and you can be ireactions) - I experimented in college, just like I'm pretty sure everyone with an open mind and a very feminist social circle did... it was often a political choice for people, in my world. "Down with the patriarchy," female self-sufficiency, you know? But it never clicked for me.

So yeah, straight as the proverbial arrow. intangirble laughs that I must be the straightest woman he's ever known if I wouldn't even get it on with Gillian Anderson... I mean, she's absolutely beautiful, don't get me wrong, and I love her character as Scully, but - nah, dip me in chocolate and throw me to Mulder any day.

((She laughs, looks around with a smile on her face. Spreads her hands wide, questioning.)) ...I'm serious. I don't see any of you getting the chocolate. Do I have to do everything myself around here?


And heh - ireactions, you're more right than you know, in many ways. Suffice to say it - you're not insane.

I guess if we were a team, you know, like Captain Planet but with four people, I could be the heart. I've always tried to - hold us together, keep us going, remind everyone that we need to look at things with sensitivity and compassion. And I always thought Ma-Ti was the best character anyway. I mean, who wouldn't wanna talk to animals?

But I always thought - well, that's fine in a group of friends, but being heartfelt isn't unique. It's not something you can base a relationship on. But then again, maybe it is. Too many people - in my world, in this world, in so many of the worlds I've been to - don't seem to see the value of it. Even as a child I never understood why people didn't care the way I did about things that were so obviously important... how they could think nothing of doing violence or being cruel, how they could watch an animal or another child suffer and not only not wince, but laugh. I didn't understand how it didn't set off something very deep inside them, a stomach-churning sense of wrongness. Maybe that's a gift I have that people need.

And I'll think about what you said, as well. Thank you.

But yeah. Quinn and I in a better place now than we were last time you and I talked. You shook me up for a moment there, saying things that were too close to things I was already feeling and trying to deny, but... I've talked to him some and I think we worked some things out. And we're still going ahead.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Does anyone here know of a fellow enthusiast of sliding named Andrew Low?

I owe him twenty dollars and no, I will not adjust for inflation. God damn it.

**

Will REMBRANDT sing and cry at the wedding? :-D

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Wade "experimented" when she attended a junior college in 1993-94? Really? Is that why she broke up with the boyfriend and latched on to Quinn like a lovesick puppy dog?

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

ireactions wrote:

Does anyone here know of a fellow enthusiast of sliding named Andrew Low?

I owe him twenty dollars and no, I will not adjust for inflation. God damn it.

**

Will REMBRANDT sing and cry at the wedding? :-D

((She laughs.)) Well, now I know how you bet! So come on, out with it - what'd I do that made you put 20 dollars on that?

As for Remmy, I wouldn't have it any other way. I mean - I want him to sing, the crying's optional, but I figure he's gonna cry whether I ask him to or not. I think we all are.

Transmodiar wrote:

Wade "experimented" when she attended a junior college in 1993-94? Really? Is that why she broke up with the boyfriend and latched on to Quinn like a lovesick puppy dog?

((You get this face.))

http://i.imgur.com/ml3cQBN.jpg

Sorry, run that by me again? I don't see how those two are related... unless you're saying Quinn is secretly a woman.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Oh. There was a moment from that time you met Agents Mulder and Scully of the X-Files Division and you clearly had a crush on Scully. A documented account can be found here. However, this event may be apocryphal or the adventure of a double.

Excerpt from Sliders: X-Marks the Spot
Scully noticed Wade staring at her out of the corner of her eye.

Scully wrinkled her brow at her. "What? Why are you staring at me?"

Wade held up a hand. "Oh, sorry. It's just -- I've never met a female police officer before."

Scully snapped her belt buckle into place. "I'm an FBI agent, not a police officer."

"I've never met one of them, either."

"Fascinating. Let's go, Mulder."

Mulder backed the car out and began to drive to the address on the file.

Scully noticed Wade staring at her again. She rolled her eyes. "Now what?"

"You carry a gun?" Wade asked.

Scully raised an eyebrow. "Obviously. I had it pointed at you a minute ago."

"Yeah, I know, but, like, you carry it all the time, right?"

Scully folded her hands over her lap, glaring out the front windshield. "When I'm on duty, yes."

"You ever kill anybody?" Wade asked.

Scully paused before saying, "A few, yes."

"Cool," Wade whispered. "You ever get in any car chases?"

"Not really, no."

"Ever hang from a helicopter?"

"No."

"Ever kick down a door?"

"Yes."

"Grab somebody's car and tell them 'This is official police business?'"

"No."

"Dust for fingerprints?"

"Yes."

"Ever bust up a drug ring -- "

"Ah, yes. No."

"Ever talk to a Mafia kingpin?"

"Yes."

"Shoot up some Martians?"

"No."

"Drive on two wheels?"

"No."

Wade held up her hands, miming firing an automatic rifle. "Ever bust up a drug ring, where they're, like, shooting at you with bullets flying all over the place, and so you grab an Uzi, and mow 'em all down like grass? Thpt-thpt-thpt-thpt -- "

"Mulder," Scully said, "how long until we get to that warehouse?"

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Oh. ((She laughs softly.)) Nope, wasn't me. I can't imagine I'd ever get excited over the thought of someone else's death.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((After thinking a little...))

I've been trying to imagine an alternate universe me who was interested in Scully. I think I can almost see it, though not for the same reasons.

I have a habit of... going for the unavailable ones. The mysterious, the remote. I can imagine if we spent enough time together, assuming I was a lesbian or at least bisexual, I'd be drawn to her in that way. She's got a very cool, defiant exterior - even Mulder had to take time to warm up to her. But over time I think she'd start to intrigue me more than her aloofness repelled me, like Quinn did.

I can also imagine being fascinated by her mind. She's an incredibly smart and incisive woman. I like that - I like strong women and active, curious minds. This is where she might lose me a little because honestly, she's not as curious as Quinn is - she's more someone who's already decided what she thinks and holds to it, like the Professor. And, well, you saw how the two of us got along. ((Laughter.)) So, like Mulder, I'd probably spend a lot of time trying to get her to see the alternatives. I don't know if that would annoy me more than it intrigued me, though.

And - like I said, she is a very beautiful woman. I can appreciate that in an abstract way, even if I don't wanna get in her pants. I don't know if that kind of attraction would translate? I've never been gay, so I don't know what I'd look for in that situation.

But hey, if anyone wants to write it, that's where I'd start.

Just keep me out of bed with Maggie, please.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

LOVE this thread! That is all.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

tom2point0 wrote:

LOVE this thread! That is all.

((Glad you like! If you guys ever want to fire any questions at Wade, have at it.))

39 (edited by intangirble 2015-11-22 23:30:48)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

So... many people on the Internet over the past 20 years have been asking, "What happened to Wade?" As in, it's a common enough query that you can get Google to autocomplete for it - a modern miracle of the 21st century in itself, heh. I'm so touched that you cared; I feel like, if I'd been imprisoned in your dimension, so many of you would have rallied to free me, and I can't explain what that means to me. But also, I keep finding myself disturbed by what those sites throw up.

When I see that question, "What happened to Wade?", I keep wishing I could answer - nothing. Nothing happened to me. It's all right, I'm fine, I'm right here - I would hug every one of you if I could, and say that.

And that's true and it isn't, because something happened to me, but it's not what you were all thinking. The Kromaggs did take us, and separate us, and I as transferred to a breeding camp, but - they decided I was more valuable as a psychic tool than a genetic one. For which... well, I'd say I'm thankful. To suffer rape, to give birth to the children of your torturers, to have your body treated as a factory, hollowed out, over and over - I can't imagine. But at least the survivors of that torture were spared the assault on their minds; the deliberate and calculated teardown of their realities. That, in my opinion, is an equal sort of evil.

But the point is I'm still alive, I'm still here. I don't - I don't want to be defined by that last moment of the story the way it was told, because that's not - it's a distorted version of what really happened. I'm not a head in a jar (as ought to be pretty obvious,) and I'm not that eternal Kromagg victim, isolated from the rest of the world with no chance of escape. I wasn't left to die alone.

I'm a survivor. I'm alive. And a life stretches out ahead of me just as it did back then, a life of possibilities and wonders - the potential for love and loss, for sorrow and joy.

And if you're reading this right now - you have, in your possession right now, the same gift. No matter what you've faced before, you have come this far.

I just wanted to say that.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

I have to Wonder about something Wade.
When you were on the World with Telepaths they had no institutional understanding of a non Teep. This always confused me when the Miranda rights and Charges were sent to you Telepathicly and were not Received/Perceived?
Surely their Society had some statistical outliers who were either very weak Telepathicly or Null Telepathicly.
It may not be common but it seems strange to be an OCP (Out of Context Problem) for the Cops.
Either that or they were prejudiced in some way.
Would they treat Nulls and Weak Teeps as Disabled? Sub Human? To be Pitied and cared for or derided and shunned?
Did you ever ask the prospective Oracle who.... Had a sort of obsession with you any of these questions?

I also recall their idea of Privacy was non existant so I do wonder.... Did they TAKE Quinn and Arturos Theoretical and Technical Knowledge of Sliding and just not reveal it?

Do you think Psychic World are Sliding somewhere as we speak? And if the answer is yes..... Are they a Danger to Non Teeps in your view?

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

41 (edited by intangirble 2015-11-23 16:15:46)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((She laughs a little.)) You're a Babylon 5 fan too, huh?

((She pulls out her feminist cred here.)) Well, I wasn't there for getting read the rights, or not read them as the case may be for my friends - but you'd be surprised how ignorant cops can be. They're the same on my world. Deaf people, for example... they're pretty common, but they're often treated badly by police for not following verbal instructions. Heck, a lot of prison guards don't seem to understand that women menstruate, and we're half the population. I'm sure there's an official procedure for non-telepaths, but most people don't think about it.

Prejudice isn't always something that's built into the institution. It can be subtle, like just forgetting that you're not the only kind of person in existence. Even if the rules say otherwise.

As for their idea of privacy being non-existent... I'm not sure if that was all of them, or just Derek. Honestly, it seemed like he had some personal issues of his own. And no, I didn't ask him. I was kind of too busy trying to convince him not to psychically rape people. ((She snorts a little.)) Maybe if I'd had more time.

I don't know if the people of that world figured out sliding. But whether they're a danger to people or not... I think that has more to do with what their cultural prejudices are like than whether they're telepathic.

((She taps the side of her head, and smiles lopsidedly.)) I'm a "teep" now too, remember? So of course I don't think it makes a person hostile to people's privacy by default. I'm not that way. If their culture has those prejudices built in, and they spread them to other worlds, then of course that would be harmful - same as if racists or sexists were to spread their ideas to worlds that were predominantly Black or female. You could even end up with a situation like the Kromaggs, where their belief in their genetic superiority causes them to want to exterminate other sentient life... ((She shudders.))

But I also wouldn't treat that as the default just because they're telepathic. ((She taps her own head again.)) After all, that'd be a little prejudiced too, don'tcha think?

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

intangirble wrote:

So... many people on the Internet over the past 20 years have been asking, "What happened to Wade?" As in, it's a common enough query that you can get Google to autocomplete for it

I'm alive.

... I never believed you were dead. In terms of basic quantum mechanics -- if you accept that the multiverse generates new realities through constantly splitting at each point with multiple outcomes of possibility, then all sliders generate multiple versions of themselves across every parallel Earth they visit. An exploration of this concept can be found in the documents and evidence gathered by Mike Truman here: http://slidersweb.net/otherworlds/317/

In terms of raw emotion, I also never believed you were dead because I just couldn't.

You have escaped prisons, holding cells, offices, strongholds, caves and outmaneuvered petty thugs, fascist dictators, corrupt businessmen, murderous doubles and killer robots -- so the idea of the Kromaggs being able to hold Wade Welles captive for long really didn't ring true.

My suspicion has always been that the sliders who survive are ones with an innate sense of risk calculation and spatial awareness, able to capitalize on the smallest of opportunities for the largest of gains. It's what kept you all alive.

In the darkest, coldest depths of my mind, I imagined Wade Welles bound and immobilized, surrounded on all sides by implacable foes and unstoppable forces. Her captors certain she was in their power. But in every imagining, the enemy would look away for the briefest of moments. The merest flicker of the eye -- and in that moment, Wade would be free and there would be nothing and no one who could possibly stop her.

And on some level, that's true for everyone here. Everyone believed that if they sifted through all the evidence, all the accounts, all the records of the sliders' adventures, repeatedly, constantly and endlessly and if the influx of new information never, ever stopped, we would eventually find something to tell us what we all knew to be true -- that you were still out there.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

...Thank you. Thank you, that means so much to me.

Who knows. Maybe you guys' faith in me, in all of us, changed something, out there in the multiverse. And maybe we're just that awesome. ((She laughs.)) Either way, knowing you were all out there, trying to do what you could, to piece together the truth... it makes even the memories of that time more bearable. Knowing that in so many ways, I was never alone.

((To the extent that she can, across the ether - you get a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She doesn't know any other way to express her gratitude.))

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Wade sent me a private message that I didn't read because I forgot to check my private messages. I'm going to answer the question here.

Wade Welles wrote:

Hey.

I just wanted to say - I stumbled across your comment from a little while back where you were defending Quinn against fans' accusations of sociopathy. Against people who said that I'd have no reason to want him, no reason to be with him.

I wanted to say - thank you for that. It's nice to know there are people who stick up for us. Quinn has his flaws, but he's not evil, he's not cruel, and - I love him. He's stared down some dark tunnels, especially lately, but they don't define him. At his heart he's so compassionate - he has a more solid code of ethics than a lot of people I know.

Do you mind if I ask - what does he think of me? Your Quinn, I mean.

I'm asking because you seem to have found your way, somehow, into being his confidant. Which is more than I've ever managed to be. I can be his friend, I can be his lover, even his fiancee, but - it's still so hard getting him to show me what's inside. He's trying these days, I know he is. He's doing better. But you understand him in a way even I don't.

-Wade

ME: "Quinn, what do you think of Wade?"
QUINN: "I've been worrying about her iron levels; I don't think she's handling her vegetarian diet in the healthiest way. It also bugs me that she likes to keep a netbook under our pillows because that's where I want to keep the timer."
ME: " ... no, what do you think of the other one?"
QUINN: "What other one?"
ME: "Timeline 616.32."
QUINN: "You might as well be asking me what I thought of Wade back in 1999 during Year Four when we got stuck in a VR trap and faced off against religious fundamentalists and accidentally saved a Kromagg commander and later had to deal with that haunted hotel. It's a timeline almost 16 years in the past. And I have memories of the other version. The one with the Chasm."
ME: "I would like to know thought of Wade back then, actually. For biographical purposes."
QUINN: "Buddy, I don't remember if I liked what I had for dinner 16 minutes ago; you can't ask me what I felt 16 years ago."
ME: "I thought you had a photographic memory."
QUINN: "That just means I can bring things to mind if I read them."
ME: "Quinn."
QUINN: "I never liked people. I didn't hate them and I wasn't indifferent to them -- but I had real reason to doubt I'd ever get along with any of them. I was in junior high at age 10, everyone hated me because I made them feel like less -- which was ultimately not my fault. I don't walk into a room to make people feel worthless, but if they feel that way to begin with, my presence makes it hard for them to forget it. A few cracked ribs and black eyes later, I'd pretty much accepted that my interaction with the human race was going to be isolated and limited and the basement would be my world. And the classroom, the repair bay at Dopplers' -- basements of a different kind."
ME: "I can't tell -- are you still dissembling?"
QUINN: "Dunno. Who can tell where this monologue is going?"
ME: "Hmm. Carry on."
QUINN: "I met Daelin at a science fair. She presented models in statistical sociological experiments in non-verbal communication and linguistic constructs. Her mathematical sequences were subtle and sublime. We'd spend hours in my basement. Experimenting on every corner of the chalkboard. I thought this would work -- another scientist. But then she moved. Continuing with what I'd learned from that, I found another scientist to fill the void. And then another. But it never worked. It was like I was trying to find a Daelin-shaped piece to fill in the gap. But people aren't like molecules in fixed equilibrium geometries -- and relationships can't operate in the simple duality of covalent and ionic bonds. Relationships are more like the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory in which objective realities cannot exist and since that was complicated enough, I decided to put my focus there and stop worrying about life partners."
ME: "Uh... "
QUINN: "I clicked with Daelin, she moved, I couldn't find a Daelin substitute, so I stopped worrying about girlfriends and decided to keep myself busy."
ME: "Thanks."
QUINN: "When I opened the gateway in my basement, I saw a symplectic manifold equation mapped to three dimensional space. A photonic construct of a theoretical mathematical model given shape and form within a physical reality -- allowing quantum theory to reconcile harmonic oscillation and equipartition theorem with local coherence and probability amplitude. So did the Professor. But Wade saw a doorway to anything and everything that might have ever happened and anyone and everyone who might have ever lived. I looked at the Revolution on the Soviet-ruled America and I saw a sociological inevitability of insurrectionary instinct against a fascist dictatorship that would likely be stamped out within a few weeks of our departure. But Wade saw the indomitable human spirit battling for justice, equality and fairness for all. I saw an asteroid hurtling towards the Earth and felt panic and fear and failure, but Wade felt like she was connected to all her doubles and to me. I couldn't connect with people. I didn't think myself above them, but I didn't know how to stand next to them and I'd stopped trying a long time ago. But Wade connected just by going about her day -- it wasn't even something she refined or practiced or honed -- it was something she did. She didn't fill the void. She connected the distances. She was my bridge."
ME: "Well, sometimes, the whole bridging and engaging with life approach was kind of myopically stupid -- like on the Lottery world where she was so wrapped up in dresses and money and luxury and parties that she didn't try to figure out why people would receive everything for nothing and she made you feel like you were the crazy one for asking questions and wanting answers."
QUINN: "Nobody's perfect."
ME: "Were you actually planning on answering the question or were you just going to ramble until I left?"
QUINN: "I don't pretend to know where I'm going to end up. Not anymore."

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

A question for you Wade if I may?

How many different types of Timer did you go through in your Multiversal Journeys?

Which was your Favourite and which did you dislike the most and why?

Could you describe them please too?

Many thanks.

Omni

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

46 (edited by intangirble 2015-12-08 22:53:16)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((She nods, listening with some interest. It's about all she could expect out of a Quinn so withdrawn into himself, and if she reads between the lines, it answers her question well enough.))

...That's - actually surprisingly insightful of him. I mean, not that Quinn isn't insightful in other ways, but... in interpersonal matters, you know? But to notice the way I fall into connectedness without trying, that connecting is what I do... and to call it that, rather than calling it - blind trust, or stupidity, or any of the other things people have called it in the past... I didn't know he'd seen into me that deeply, not back then. I'm touched.


Let me tell you guys a little story. I know you've all got your own speculations about what my childhood was like - I saw an interesting one in another thread on here recently, I think it was by Temporal Flux, about how I'd struggled to develop socially as a child due to illness. Not true in my timeline, but I thought it was a pretty smart conclusion to draw, given that what did happen to me basically had the same effect. He even got the timing right too - it was around senior year of high school when things turned around for me.

But no, at least in my timeline, I didn't get sick - I was bullied. I think you'll see a little mention of that in the show somewhere, but it never really gets into how bad it was. Up until my senior year, I can't really remember a time in childhood when I was liked at school, or had friends. Not real friends, anyway... not ones that didn't tolerate me for a few weeks at best, then turn on me like everyone else.

Why? I'm not really sure myself... it was probably a mix of things. I was a loud kid, someone who said what I felt and didn't know the meaning of "tact." I was sensitive to cruelty, especially to animals. I was smart, geeky - I mean, I was no Quinn Mallory, but I read way ahead of my grade level and actually enjoyed learning, when everyone else seemed to treat it like a chore. And on top of all that, my hobbies and interests weren't typical "girl" things... I liked getting out in nature, hiking, camping, that sort of thing. Climbing trees, digging in the dirt... I was a real tomboy. As a result, I was always drawn more to the boys than the girls when it came time to pick friends. Of course, the boys looked down on me because I was a "wimpy girl"... and the girls just laughed at the clueless girl who didn't know her social "place."

Even my sister... well, I could talk all day about my relationship with Kelly and how it's complicated. Let's just say she was popular, and I was anything but. She was embarrassed by me; I was resentful of her; it culminated in the Great Narnia War of 1982, during which we drove my parents nuts and ended up getting the books banned from the house for a time... yeah.

Anyway. I didn't have friends. And that was hard on someone like me, because - I'm not an introvert, not naturally. I need people. Yes, I genuinely love computers and fantasy, but I also love company. Being isolated and ignored, even at home, took a real toll on me emotionally. By the time I was fourteen or so, I was a withdrawn, moody, anxious kid.

But part of me never stopped trying. I didn't want to be isolated; I just didn't know how to get people to like me. I didn't know what I was doing wrong. And every time I tried it seemed like I got hurt. But I kept trying, because I couldn't not... and eventually, I don't know, something clicked, and things weren't so bad any more. The bitter feminist in me wants to say that I just grew up and got pretty. I didn't learn anything new, but suddenly I wasn't mousy and geeky-looking any more, and people - guys - wanted to get close to me more than they wanted to ignore me. One of my former tormentors actually tried to invite me to senior prom with him, can you imagine? And so where the male attention went, the female admiration followed. ((She shrugs.))

I guess what I'm trying to say in all of this is that Quinn's more right than he knows. I never learnt to connect with people, never "honed" how to do it... I never got the chance to practice. I don't even know that I'm good with people, honestly. I like people, I like talking to people, and maybe now I'm older and better-looking that's enough to make people smile. But I've never had many social graces, for all that I've tried to learn. I'm just... I'm just me.

And I need connection, and that part of me instinctively reaches out, every time. Even if I know it's stupid, even if I know it's going to get me hurt... like on some world where we don't have time. I just need people. And I guess part of me always wants them to like me, too.

---

...Well, that got long. Sorry! omnimercurial, to your question... man, that's a tricky one. I mean, the timer wasn't really my thing, it was Quinn's... I never really got to play with it. And around the third year of sliding things got pretty fuzzy for me, so... I'm not sure, but I want to say there were two.

I only really remember the one well, though. It was the first one, the one that Quinn made himself. I guess it always looked like a TV remote control to me, but I think it was actually made out of an old cellular phone. It had those red LED numbers on the display like an alarm clock, and a bunch of weird labels that I never really knew what they did. I asked Quinn, but he didn't really explain very well. Like - Tau, Delta, Zeta. I think they were frequencies? Frequency waves, measuring the strength of some kind of signal - I guess the quantum overlap between worlds. Anyway, at times, like when we got to a new world, those lights would go on and off, and the bars would oscillate... kind of like the signal bars on a cell phone. It seemed like the timer was trying to lock on to a frequency.

I didn't really have a favorite, but I can tell you that the feeling of sliding was different betwen different devices. When the Kromaggs were transporting us between worlds, their kind of sliding felt different. It was smoother, but also more... mechanical-feeling? I don't know how to describe it exactly, but sliding with Quinn's device... something about it was almost supernatural. I felt like I was leaving my body, mingling with the atoms of everything and everyone around me. I could feel Quinn, Remmy, the Professor there with me, and I could feel their emotions, their excitement... their minds were brushing against mine. It was a real rush.

With the Kromaggs, I didn't feel any of that connection. I guess I'm glad. I wouldn't wanna feel merged with a Kromagg. Being around them is bad enough.

I hope that answers your question somewhat!

---

Oh, ireactions. One more thing.

I guess I wanted to shed some light on just what I was feeling back on Lottery World. I mean - it's not that I never thought about the possibility of whether it was all a setup. I did. I just - I so badly wanted a world that wasn't going to put us all through Hell again, you know?

((She lets out a short, sardonic laugh.)) Not that I wouldn't trade a million spiderwasp worlds for the Kromaggs. But back then, it all felt like the worst thing I'd ever been through in my life. The most beautiful, too, and the most expansive, the most enlightening... but also, we'd been through so much. The spiderwasps, the tsunami... the possible end of days... Quinn being beaten on by those Mafia thugs, and almost getting shot... When I thought we'd arrived on a world where everyone was happy and everything was perfect, I wanted to cling to that illusion. It was the kind of world I'd always imagined for myself... the kind of world I'd want to settled down in, raise children in. If we weren't going to make it home, I wanted to at least stay somewhere peaceful, before we ended up on some world where Nazis ruled or something.

So I forced myself not to think of the alternative. Because I wanted to believe. In a future for myself, but also - in humanity. I wanted to believe that such a perfect world could be possible if we only tried, and worked together.

I still do.

47 (edited by intangirble 2015-12-15 02:25:55)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((Wade smiles and claps her hands together. Oddly enough, she's wearing a little producer's headset and sitting in front of a laptop, because she has not at all slid into a world where her double happens to be the associate producer of a sports news show, and she's not at all taking advantage of this fact to hack into their computer systems. ))

http://i.imgur.com/Pqj1SvP.png

((She'd never do that. But if she did, wouldn't it be a great story?))


So!

This week Cory and Tom actually asked me a question directly on their podcast - hi guys! ((She hurriedly closes a half dozen "ACCESS DENIED" windows, which are flashing and displaying ominous laughing skulls in true 90s style, and pulls up the Rewatch Podcast site.)) They asked me, "What do you think about the idea of 'Net Worth' as a Quinn and Wade story?"

...Or "Quade," as you guys seem to like calling it. I guess it's better than "Quaggie."

((Shush, you. "Quade" is adorable. -intangirble))

I prefer "Win." ((She shoots back a grin. She's feeling feisty tonight it seems.))

Anyway! Uh, obviously I think it'd be better that way because I'm hopelessly biased? But seriously, I think it would've made a really interesting encounter with our doubles. A Quinn who was an Offliner, loving to tinker with computers but hopelessly locked out from where he truly wanted to be because of his social status... I can see that for him only too well.

And me in my ivory tower, isolated from the offline world but secretly craving it... well, I told you some of my childhood story above. I can easily see myself as someone who longed for the world of people, of human contact, but at the same time hid away from it behind a fantasy life... because that's who I was as a child. I wanted to reach out, but people only ever hurt me. I wanted to make my fantasies reality, but I didn't see how. If I'd had the opportunity to live my whole life in a dream... well, I think I would've been a lot like Joanne. Afraid to step outside my walls, but also knowing there was something more out there that I just wasn't touching.

((She looks back at something on her screen, then makes a face.)) ...Also, really? "Rick Montana" and "Joanne Capshaw?" Not exactly going subtle on the references here, were they? Then again, "Sliders" was never a show of subtlety. I guess Quinn, Remmy, the Professor and I aren't people of subtlety.

Or Maggie. Maggie's definitely not subtle. By the way, you have no idea how much coffee I had to drink just now to pass myself off as Natalie. It was a lot of coffee.

((She stares very firmly and very gravely into the camera.)) A lot. Of coffee. Anyone got a stress ball?

...So Joanne was afraid of being close to Rick in person because she'd grown up thinking Offliners were like... this alien species. Makes sense I guess. If it were a story about me and Quinn, I think you could work the angle like this... huh, I like how that sounds. Work the angle. I'm really getting into this producer thing. Anyway, you could make it be more like... my double was afraid that Offliners would mistreat her, that they'd be even worse than the bullies she faced at school. Maybe they'd taught her that people would judge her based on her face, her looks, and so she didn't know how to deal with people face to face any more. I could see that being a believable story.

I'm looking forward to reading ireactions' script, to see what direction he went with it. I mean, it can't be any worse than the scripts we have here. If I never have to read another poorly-veiled innuendo about a "hustle for loose balls," it'll be too soon.

((This has been another episode of "That's Random", with Wade Wells. ...Wait, what?))

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

((Wade straightens the collar on her rather rumpled, evidently slept-in business shirt. Seeming to have sobered up a little after last night's method-acting-induced caffeine bender, she now has further thoughts to add on the topic of "Net Worth".))

Ahem. So... I've been thinking some more about "Net Worth."

I like the story, particularly as a story about Quinn and I. It is kind of unrealistic, admittedly... but then, I've seen dinosaurs in the flesh. Who am I to talk about what's likely or possible in the multiverse?

But I do think it's a nice metaphor for something that I have seen happen, and that's online romance. Especially back in the Nineties, when meeting people "from the Internet" was seen as much more fraught and unusual, falling for someone you've only ever met online might as well have been falling for a prince or princess locked up in an ivory tower. Not that that's ever happened to me or anything.

Text hides a lot of good things, like smiles, or the warmth of someone's jacket as they place it around your shoulders. But in a sense, it also strips things down to what's really important. You're not confined by your name or your face, by the reputation you have in your home town. Your popularity can only come from your words and your thoughts. And especially in the geek-dominated world that was the Internet in the Nineties, interesting thoughts, deep thoughts, whimsical thoughts, were a powerful currency. For someone whose thoughts had never been respected, that was intoxicating. Suddenly people listened to you, cared about what you had to say. You weren't just some loser more into reading books than balancing them, dreaming away your life. You were worth something to somebody.

You don't really need a fantasy of Onliners and Offliners to write a story that taps into that, though it's one way to do it. The gulf, often of states or even continents, between online soul and online soul is enough of a barrier, especially when you're young. Countless Juliets over these past 20 years have stood at their balconies, lamenting a world where two like souls can meet yet be kept so far apart by chance and circumstance, by the position - in this case geographical - into which they have been born. And sometimes - rarely, thankfully - it ends in suicide. Young love is always painful, but young geek love - the love of misfits destined not to follow the traditions laid out for them by their families - even more so.

So yeah, I can relate to the story. I guess I wish it had been a little more low-key - of course I love sci-fi, but there's already so much drama in the world of geeks in online love that it hardly needs anything else. Two lonely souls, locked up in their own distant towers of isolation and friendlessness, reaching out through lines of glowing text across a data network - yeah, that could have been me and Quinn. I'm glad it wasn't. But it would make a really strong story.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

So I hope you guys don't mind me using this thread as a sort of confessional-slash-diary. I don't really know where else to get all this out, and since you guys kinda know me... well, it's nice to have someone to talk to who might care.

Not that Quinn doesn't care. But... well, you'll see why I wouldn't wanna bring this up to Quinn.

I passed this guy in the parking lot today - I just caught a glimpse of him, but he reminded me of Wilkins for a moment. When the moment had passed, I caught myself thinking, "you know, that Wilkins was a pretty attractive guy. Why didn't I sleep with him when I had the chance, anyway?"

And - the more I thought about it, the more the answer wasn't so clear. I always told myself it was because of Quinn, and that was part of it, I guess, but it wasn't the whole thing.

I think part of it was like... well, it's deceitful. To pretend to be someone else's lover, when you know you're not really that person, just to get laid? Sure she was my double, but that doesn't make her the Wade he knew any more than if she were my identical twin. And sleeping with someone, when the situation they consented to is a completely different one from the one they're actually in... that's effectively rape. (And yes - I am one of those people who believes a woman can rape a man. Feminism's awesome, isn't it?)

But even that isn't the whole thing. Deep down, what I really felt was... I was afraid. Not of Wilkins - he was a lovely guy and a perfect gentleman - but of the whole situation. Here I was, a literal world away from home in "Soviet America" in the middle of a resistance hideout that could be smoked out, blown up, or otherwise taken over at any time. And sure, I won't deny that it was a rush - that part of me was really excited to see this alternate history playing out in front of my eyes! But another part of me was terrified... that we were all going to die, that I'd never get back home.

I didn't show that very much, not to the others. I didn't want to make them even more afraid than they already were by piling my emotions on them too. But I think it must have shown to Wilkins, and like the reasonable man he is, he didn't push anything on me after that. Even though he made up that little innuendo to cover for me after the fact, I think that was really when he must have realized that I wasn't his Wade. Because his Wade already knew the score. She might've been scared of the situation she was in, but she clearly wasn't letting it get in the way of their relationship.

...There's that little part of me that still says it was a shame. He was a very nice guy... and like I said, he was a great kisser. But on so many levels it wasn't right. I never did fully explain why, though. I wish I had. I hope I didn't leave him feeling like he did something wrong.

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Wasn't the Soviet US Divergence due to Economics rather than the Old Cliched "Red Dawn" Invasion of the Commies Trope?

Or am I misremembering?

I was talking with a Friend a while back and we were speculating that another possible route to a Soviet US could have been a Yellowstone Eruption at some point post the Wall Street Crash which the Soviets responded to with Aid, Disaster Relief etc and just never left after Stability was enforced due to being the Source of Stability and Reconstruction.

I figure such a World might be one in which the Japanese Empire take the Dutch East Indies due to America being too weakened by the Eruption and After Effects.

The Nazis probably still took France but never went East.
Maybe due to a Successful Soviet "Winter War" with Finland that made the Nazis too cautious to pull a Barberossa and choose to consolidate gains in France.

Either that or the Battle of Khalkin Gol between the USSR and Japan escalated leading to a Soviet Manchuria and or Korea which pushed the Empire of Japan into the Dutch East Indies after Embaressing Defeat of the Imperial Army on the Mainland.

Thoughts on this if you have any please Wade?

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

51 (edited by intangirble 2015-12-17 22:07:40)

Re: Wade Explains It All (Responses to Cory and Tom! And general chat.)

Uh... ((She laughs awkwardly.)) I'm flattered that you'd consider me a reliable source, but I'm not exactly an expert on historical political conflicts... I can tell you how I felt about being in a North America that'd been overtaken by Soviet Russia, but speculating how it could have gotten there is a little beyond me. Sorry...

The Professor said that the divergence was caused by the "domino effect." I don't really know anything other than that...