Headache

[Tvorsk]

Hey, got a minute? I believe I've promised to tell you what I know about my past some day, haven't I?
Eitherway, right now I have a headache huge enough that talking about it shouldn't make it worse, so...

Let me warn you and apologize up front... it won't make sense, it will sound like an excuse-plot for bad game, and probably make your head hurt as much as mine does already.
You can stil back off, you know...?

Well, all right, your call. Take a seat, or something. If you want a drink, kitchen's over there.

All right. So, let me start from the most recent end, because I know the most about this one.
First thing I remember from this life would be falling down from above the tree level, getting slowed down by all the branches, and hitting the ground right in front of a surprised group of wolves. Long story short, I was in a park in the capital. They called security, which took me for at best a refugee, at worst a spy, and pulled down... then, upon realizing I'm unlike the normal foxes here suspected me of being a Genoworks project or something, and handed off to the Akaelaes to get rid of the problem.
Took a while, but I've got things straightened out. I was genuinely surprised at how welcome I was in there. Settled down, felt at home. After a while, I've started doing what I shown to be good at; I've joined the security forces, did some... actions over the years, progressed to the special unit... been there during the Teraplex war, too. Did some tinkering and played with their electronics in the free time, too. I'm honestly still surprised they did trust me despite so many unknowns and unusualities about me, but I've never been more happy before, too  At some point, they gave up on trying to find out just where I came from, and shrugged it as non-issue.

Much later, when spending time at the Academy, well... something happened.
Later I've found out that at that very moment they've blown up an energy core on the other side of the campus. Anyway, according to what I've been told, I've just blinked and disappeared. Apparently the one theory anyone raised in the short meantime was that I after all was some off-shoot of a black fox, and like all of them who haven't been trained to deal with their abilities, well... just killed myself in an outburst of energy.
What really happened? Well, I've been curled up in the very same place where I've been just a moment ago, except it was on a different Mars... one without the Academy, and without anyone to hear my screams anywhere near. That was when I've became aware of all the other, well, lives or however should they be called. Threads? Existances? No blasted idea... But, well, try to imagine you standing in a room, talking to people, and suddenly they and the buildings aren't there, there's only you, huge empty red desert, and all the "memories" of your own other pasts in your head.
Now I think it might be not a bad thing there wasn't anyone else around at the time... at least this way only one hurt was me.

I didn't know what happened; after some time I've thought that maybe I've just... moved... to another "life" like all the others... but then I've realized that I see all the other ones still unfolding, but this one I've supposedly just left is not there, it's still "my" past... well, of course I wanted to go back to where I was settled and happy for last thirty or so years.

But first I needed to find out whre and what is this place. Well, turns out it was also in the middle of terraforming process, but this one was done by a bunch of Earth corporations, treating the planet as their own playground, and treating the people in there like trash. Well, you can probably guess how they reacted when "colonists" (and I use this term loosely) decided to claim independence? Yeeeeeep.
Let me tell you it this way... I really liked that when I was with the Akaelaes, for once the good guys were the largest and best equipped group. But, had to make do without much resources, and without my (t)rusty lift... fawks, you won't believe how I missed it sometimes. Not even as much for its (notable) combat value, but out of sentiment for all the time and events it carried me through.

Upon hearing "Hey, we've got our second fox", I of course had to ask... and well, that's how I met Donnie. I'm pretty sure we'd get along even if I was a badger and he a meerkat or whatever... but as it is, the fox team happened, and was crucial for the resistance to tilt the odds.
After things calmed down a bit, we went to more regular work, for ourselves, on contracts... just another bunch of specialists for hire on this dusty planet.
Well, one day I've had a nightmare, and woke up knowing what to do to get home. No, not wherever I started from. I mean, back to the Mars I was before I ended up on this one.
I was torn; didn't want to leave my friend, did want to get back to where I felt I belonged to the best. Well... in the end result we've found out that a little silray hugging me farewell went along with me, but none of our clothes did, so it was a bit of an awkward moment.
Which became weirder when I found out that in this dimension, just a few minutes passed.
I'll spare you the mess that we got trying to explain this all; someone we all knew well and who had... experiences with off-plane travel said it's nothing alike to hers, "and much more sideways", whatever that'd mean. I gave up on trying to understand her long ago. No one, not even her, had any idea what's going on with these "memories of past lives", of mine.

So I'm back where I wanted to be, my friend hitched along, but seems to be enjoying the tech we have in here... nd that'd be about this current existance of mine, and the only one I really am any sure about. Still, it may all be fake... I might be some kind of GW creation with everything else being faked into my head... but at this point, it's less probable than the other explaination.

So, I guess I should explain what I mean by past lives, then...
I honestly don't know if they should be called past, actually. Or lives, for that matter.

See, they all have a start like this one had... I was just appearing somewhere, kind of lost, and trying to get along in the world. "At the same time", tho "time" is a very wrong word to use here. But just as I am sitting here talking to you, these "past foxes" are also doing things right now; one's studying for an exam, one's just asleep after holding watch on a moored starship, one's working in a foundry, one's working on a database, and the last one... blast it, I wish I'd have a pizza right now too... erm, nevermind.
Anyway, I'm sure that they, unlike me, don't have any awareness of each other. And, I don't remember any kithood; either as part of one of those "lives", or separate.
Now, why do I call them "past", and not "parallel" or such? Because there are connections between one to the other. I have some scars under the fuzz... I "remember" how some of them happened in one of the pasts, so I may assume that memories where I have it come from after this event, and the rest is from earlier times. I may be wrong about it, of course, but that's the most logical. Also, right now, Lt. Tvorsk is serving as the second officer on his third ship in the career, VSN auxillary corvette awkwardly named the Comet's Tail; somehow, I've stumbled over this ship in this existence, and apparently I'm the registered owner of it since quite a long while... and when I was leaving that Navy I was a Lieutenant Commander. Speaking of, I look really stupid in a uniform... hello?
Are you still with me?

* Tvorsk waves paw in front of your eyes...

Oh great, I've broke another one...

* Tvorsk shakes you and sighs loudly as you blink.

All right, I think I should stop here, then...

* Tvorsk grins vaguely.

Is this all true, or am I talking random stuff to make your head hurt just as mine does? That's up to you to decide.

[William Swiftfoot]

Interesting backstory to say the least, and knowing the universe hes references, believable.

[PrincessToyTime]

That's a really cool backstory, in some way, I think I do kind of get it.

[Virmir]

Wow, really cool, Tvorsk.   I always love reading your stories because they seem like they're coming from a old friend in a causal environment as opposed to a formal story you'd read in a book.  It's hard to understand the parallel dimension thing, but that is the entire point.

Great job, and do write more!

[Tvorsk]

! Howlin'... you must be really bored or... well, I'll assume you are bored.
Well, I actually am feeling better today, so, I don't quite want to go there... some of it hurts a lot...

* Tvorsk sniffs...

Jalapenos?
Ooookay, if you're bringing in food, I can go for this trade.

Right, keep in mind that large part of this is guesswork, and I'm not quite sure what goes before what. Some boundaries are pretty obvious, but in other cases I just don't have any good clue as to what happened first, and what at other time.
Generally, it's all one big mess, to be honest. When I talk about it, it feels to myself like a cheap throwaway plot of some roleplay, or such. And well, sometimes, remembering things that happened just makes me cringe, facepaw, or be ashamed.

* Tvorsk sighs...

All right, let's pour the soda and get on track.

So, I think the time in Korsuna is my earliest memory. It's kinda ironic; Korsuna is an underground city/colony thing, and not a nice place, except in the districts of the rich and the business centre... but it wasn't any hyperdystopian thing like fiction usually displays. Probably not any worse than a big Earth city would be. Of course, for a fox that had no money, no acquaintances, and no idea about where he arrived, it was pretty rough.
I've dealt, tho. Hid a lot, in the beginning. Later, after I've got some cash and could approach some a bit more well-kept areas, I've been a loader, and later a driver for a shipping organization. Not crazy cool, maybe, but still, had more than enough chances to fight for my life... and a few chances to mug the muggers.
Later, it got cooler, and nastier. I've moved to another business belonging to the same conglomerate... what? Yes, I did find out why this place existed; it has been built because an upcoming solar flare was going to clear the surface of the planet down to nothing, so they just buried the whole colony thirty miles or so down, if I got the units right, and it apparently worked. Except there was no reason to get back outside again, so they stayed where they were. It wasn't too big... a few million inhabitants total. Originally set up from a sublight settlement ship, of the type that wanders randomly for centuries with everything and everyone in stasis. Nobody else knew where exactly they went, no ship came in the detection range since.
Anyway, as of "now", I'm convoying armored high-value transports for Otad-Jain; and let me tell you, lime green is so totally NOT my color...  guess half of the reason the gangs are shooting so bad is them laughing their tails off at how I look. Hmm, maybe it is worse than a big Earth city would be. But well, at least it's a good paid job. Pass the sauce, please.

... all right, all right, will tell ya... the next one starts in freezing cold water. It's literally the first thing I remember from it. Barely pulled myself out of the creek. Fur isn't helping much when it's soaked all the way through, you know. Found some wood, made a fire... and I remember very well the "howlin', I did it!" surprise when it finally sparked... pulled myself through the night, somehow. Then started to wander.
Honestly, whenever I think of that area thesedays, I'm reminded of all the adventure books taking place in late 1800s Canada I've read after coming around here... cold, wild, with small settlements very far away from each other and pre-information era technology at best. Of course, I wasn't welcomed anywhere, but it was the usual treatment any outsider got. After some time, I've found a larger town, and started as a blacksmith's apprentice. It's a pretty boring life there, but, well, it's a life. Took over the whole thing from the old man a while ago. And, urm, I believe I might have sparked a fashion trend for shirts with a stripe down the back. Hard to say, but they weavers started to make them a few years after I've moved in.
I don't know much about this world... Venferk is scarcely populated in general. Cold around the year, snow for ten months or so, out of fifteen. As of Nomden, well... a few trappers every week, two merchants a month, maybe... and the biggest news of a year is someone's wedding. Honestly, when I talk about it to you here, I'm surprised that I can handle it there without dying from boredom. The news travellers bring in often mention mages carrying wars in... the more populated areas, I guess. Of course, it's all word passed from person to person... may be exaggerated, maybe these "mages" are actually high tech users... I have no idea.

Seriously, what's that with the puppy eyes? Still didn't have enough? Uhh, well, the next one... ... ...no.
No, I won't talk about that one, especially not during dinner.
No.
... give that dessert back!
... All right, I'll sum it down for you. Better eat this first, tho, it'd be a shame if you'd lost the taste before trying the cake.
Okay, ready?
In short... foxes have been killed centuries ago in some kind of religious war. I guess I should be happy they didn't do any crazy torture stuff, just kept in dungeon and beat up every now and then because I didn't talk what they wanted to hear. Escaped after way too long, travelling and hiding away ever since.
Satisfied? Good.

That's only one that was so bad that I am aware of, and there's quite a few still ahead.
But before I'll continue, I have to ask...
Just why are you interested in this at all? Why do you take the effort, bribe me with a good dinner, why insist for me to tell more?
And, do you still want me to keep telling?

[Virmir]

Really cool stuff.  I am indeed interested in hearing more, mainly because it's good fun, and I also want to see how it all ties in with the "you" here now.

[Stormkit]

I like that your backstory because it's unique. It's something I've never seen before and that's one of a few things that can instantly make a story interesting to me. The whole chained together lives concept is more interesting than any given section.

Also, I get the impression that each individual 'life' is like a different incarnation of your character. As if you, the author, created this character and shipped him into many different settings and then this story is how the character interprets that. And that is how it can be simultaneous, and yet sequential at the same time with any character changes due to the author developing the character. Not sure if that's what you were thinking, but it's the way I'm finding I interpret this.