Azure Returns from Future, Looks to Past

Azure Varisha, formerly a singular blue fox, has recently been seen in two versions, sometimes side by side. SDNews sat down with one of the versions to find out the story behind this duplication.

Can you clarify for our readers “which Azure” you are?

I am the version from roughly six months hence, or maybe five. I’m not very good at time.

Then you are the elder Azure. How did you and the younger Azure come to be in the same timeline simultaneously?

Well, I’m not quite sure of the precise details, I hope to come up with a more proper theory some day. All I know is that this disheveled, blue gentleman from my future had made mention of a strongly charged black hole that actually showed a naked singularity, though he wasn’t able to tell me exactly where. I managed to find it (or something very much like it) and when I came back home I had arrived before I left.

Do you remember meeting yourself when you lived through this situation the first time, as the younger Azure?

[Azure seems preoccupied.] Yes…. It’s all rather vague…. Yes. I recall being rather distressed at how messy I looked.

Then you have had some memory loss around your previous meeting?

Well, you know, I imagine such things are just a normal part of aging and homebrew cybernetics.

You were seen sending the other Azure off on a spaceship, while telling him he was going on “an adventure.” What adventure is he — are you — on?

To be honest, it’s rather an embarrassing one. I’ve something of a tendency toward the impetuous, bolding rushing in where angels fear to tread? In broad outlines, my younger self is currently discovering that trying to be helpful before gathering information does not work out well.

Can you be a little less broad with your outline?

I would advise your readers to avoid confusing a psychiatric hospital for a political prison.

When do you expect the younger Azure to return? Or has he already returned?

I don’t know, I think I was gone for a couple weeks? I’m not quite sure, but I think around that time. And I have some stuff to take care of that would only bore him.

One last question.  Most people do not get the opportunity to meet themselves as you have done. What is it like to meet yourself? Is it pleasant or unpleasant?

Both, really. There’s upsides and downsides. There’s a very odd emotional resonance in doing something you remember being thrilled or delighted or surprised by that I’ve never experienced any other way. The downside is I find it to be boring and somewhat confusing to have much of a conversation with myself, or even just to be around for things I’ve already seen. So I often find myself avoiding myself, which causes me some emotional distress even if I do know better intellectually, if you see what I mean. I think the experience was much more compelling from the other side; getting a foretaste of my being-to-be and instructions in how to get there rather than acting out lines I already knew.

Then it must be a relief for the younger Azure to be away.

I sha’n’t say that. I’ve been keeping him away from the newspaper long enough; I don’t want to have to keep it up just so he won’t get his feelings hurt. I will say that I can enjoy my own company in some circumstances, since I make a very good student (though it’s difficult getting him to focus on one thing) and I enjoy teaching.  It’s just small talk and arguments that really wear on me, since in the latter all the details are already fully worked out and it’s just an exercise in formality.