Timelines and Alternate Dimensions are nearly as perplexing as matters of the heart

[fredericks]

Okay, this is so weird I felt it had to be plastered in my LJ.

Say you're in a deep (think "soul mate") relationship and then somehow you're suddenly flung into the future. Perhaps 15 years later. Same place, just the future. You meet up with your soul mate; of course, he/she's aged 15 years. He/She is also married or otherwise committed to another person and there are kids involved. You, say, run around with the other person because you have some mission or task to accomplish with them, and the old feelings he/she had for you re-emerge (remember now, y'all are soul mates... or at least a reasonable facsimile). You're torn because this person is your soul mate, only...not. Your alternate dimension soul mate (ADSM for short), if you will. He/she has someone else in their life and young'uns. But he/she obviously still cares for you.

So y'all run around, do your thing, and then you're ready to go back to your past (you were flung into the future with knowledge that you knew how to get back to your own time, and you didn't hesitate to share this knowledge with the ADSM). But...ADSM's looking at you with the most forlorn expression and you're looking back at him/her and you want to kiss him/her just to...you don't know. Argh! The agony!

Do you kiss ADSM and perhaps engage in sexual relations? For clarification, you're unsure if your departure from the "future" timeline will cause a collapse of the dimension or if time will continue and ADSM will have to deal with the fallout of having essentially having an affair with you. Maybe there will be no fallout and ADSM will keep it all as a secret. Maybe ADSM's SO will be understanding. Maybe not. You have no idea. What you do know is that you love the person, but you're just as conflicted as they are.

Again, what do you do? And if you do, uhm, DO ADSM, what would you tell soul mate from your own time when you returned, if anything?

I've been reading comics for the last couple of weeks. It's the only reason I can think of that I've been pondering this all damned afternoon.

ETA - There are more than a few books/movies/comics that deal with this. Can anyone lend me the names of good ones?

Comments

[zelle999.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, hard question. Is ADSM happily married to SO, and only your arrival has thrown a chink in the armor (Is that the right expression? I'm so bad with those)? If I knew that the relationship was a happy one, I would like to say I wouldn't want to mess with it, especially if there were kids.

MY favorite movie on the subject is Chances Are (although it's a totally different situation) with Cybill Shepard, Christopher McDonald, Robert Downey Jr. and Ryan O'Neal. Christopher is married to Cybill and she gets pregnant with Mary Stuart Masterson. Then Christopher dies and is reincarnated as Robert Downey Jr. Then he grows up and starts remembering that he was married to and in love with Cybill, who Ryan is also in love with. Fair enough - he was Cybill's husband in his past life. So then he gets his memory of his past life erased and instead falls in love with Mary. So, even though he is in a different body and has had his past life memory erased, his soul is still the same, and he's boning his own daughter. Isn't that pretty gross?

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

If I knew that the relationship was a happy one, I would like to say I wouldn't want to mess with it, especially if there were kids.
Yeah. Most people with a shred of morality feel more than a little shitty about fucking with someone who's married, particularly if there are children involved. Since most people on my FL have that shred (it's part of the reason why we're friends), I didn't even bother to bring that up in my initial post. I threw the "or otherwise committed" bit in there to give it as an out. *grin*

And it's like - you KNOW you're going back "home" (timewise) to meet the same person, but you realize you're leaving this person for the second time, basically. You love him/her and he/she loves you, still (the soul mate belief, something I've never put much weight behind in real life, is key for this example - then again, it makes for a much better drunken late night discussion fest if you talk about whether the whole "soul mate" thing is real, blah blah blah).

Bwah. Thanks for taking the time to make it through this. My brain, it is a strange instrument.

So, even though he is in a different body and has had his past life memory erased, his soul is still the same, and he's boning his own daughter.
OhMYGAWD.
That's disgusting. Worse than Ghost. I couldn't believe people were fawning over that movie. Basically what happened at the "climax" was that Whoopi Goldberg's character and Demi Moore's character got it on. And while I don't have a problem with female/female lovin', I DO have a problem with anyone/Whoopi lovin'. I don't care if they showed Patrick Swayze on the screen while they played that Righteous Brothers song, it was Whoopi! Jebus! I felt like the guy from Soylent Green - "It's Whoopi! Whooooooooooopi!"

[zelle999.livejournal.com]

SNORT!! I thought the exact same thing!!



"BUT IT'S STILL WHOOOOOPI!!!!!!"

What?

[kommisar.livejournal.com]

Relax, you! If you need snogging, get to it and don't pretend it's anything more than that. Is your happiness that much higher priority than the happiness of the kidlets involved?

F*ck him/her, get it over with and move along, quickly. Don't ever return, don't look back, and, for god's sake, don't moralize. Let the ape out or forget about it.

Don't whine, ponder or explore couldabeens. Act. And be happy.

Bwah!

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

You're taking this much more literally than I intended. *grin* If I ever get flung into a future timeline I will certainly keep your words of wisdom in mind.