This will not affect your original timeline.

And lets take take this hypothetical a step further:

Sceanrio 2:
Say, in the alt-timeline, present-you arrive in the year when past alt-you were 10 years old, your original parents/guardians/caretakers dies for some reason on this timeline, would you care enough about your alternate-self help them? Like take on the role of a parent/guardian in place of their now-dead parents? (Basically, its a roundabout way of asking: How much can you tolerate yourself?)

My answer:

I think I could probably remember enough of myself to understand my alt-self enough to become friends. But if their timeline got fucked up, and their parents die, I’m not sure I can actually deal with this kid who, is me, but not me, like… I would probably get so annoyed at this kid, but also, I’d think about myself when I was 10, when I was this kid, and then feel pity. Idk if I could ever abandon an alt-self, because I’ve already feel abandoned (not literally, but like as in terms of the emotional side of parental love that I never gotten), I wouldn’t wanna see someone who is practically me, also go though the same abandonment.

Idk… Time travel is so weird.

  • ButteryMonkey@piefed.socialEnglish
    3·
    5 hours ago

    I genuinely don’t like being around kids or teens, they make me uncomfortable, so I wouldn’t like my younger self. Also I was a horrible child, according to my mother throughout my childhood, so… yeah.

    I’d help my 10yo self, but I wouldn’t take myself in and raise her or whatever; I’m far too negligent for that (why I’m sterile), and having had a negligent single parent myself, I have no interest in passing that experience down. Alternate me deserves better than I could provide. It would be a more frustrating version of my own shitty childhood if I did it - at least my own mother wasn’t physically disabled. And she only had the ‘tism (undiagnosed but almost certainly where I got it), where I have adhd and the ‘tism, as well as a slew of physical issues (headaches, back pain, digestive issues, bad joints, etc.) that would mean I can’t be fully present for a kid, even myself.

    But I could probably mentor myself; I know where we fuck up and why, and if I could prevent that suffering (not necessarily change the way our life shakes out, but take away the negative feelings about it that took me decades to work through and are still a problem sometimes), I would like to. I think if I’d had some sort of supportive role model who wasn’t arms-length (seriously I have no memories of being hugged as a child, but lots and lots of being punished…), I’d probably have turned out way less of a disaster.