UN: @kyouken // Back when I was a brat, I found a sparrow with a broken leg and took it home

[justbeingknife]

Seems like a couple people here have been showin' up with folks they know from back home. I was figurin' that since they came from the same place, they were also from just about the same time -- but from what I been hearing, that ain't necessarily the case.

So if you're from the 'future' compared to someone ya know here, lemme ask ya this: do you remember that other person going missing?

I also heard that there were people who came here before us, but it tapered off before starting back up again last month. But how long was that dry spell? Would anyone from back then be around?

Comments

[justbeingknife]

Hmm. Yeah. Wonder if I can figure out how to make one. I just got the hang of this textin' thing, but supposedly it's got pictures, too.

Can't really figure out what the star map is for, though. That supposed to be useful for somethin'?

[beyourzoomer]

Or maybe even just some kind of system so we know who's here in case anyone vanishes or something. [The gears in her mind are turning.]

Maybe navigation? Or...maybe the natives super like star gazing?

[skyofreverie]

[He can just feel the smile even through text.]

Exactly! Anything can be made better with friends at your side.

[skyofreverie]

[Yeah, he thinks so too. Sora feels it's one of the best jobs someone could have.]

Well there's one where everyone is an animal and they're ruled by a king and queen mice. One where's an entire kingdom underwater with mermaids who play with dolphins and other other sea creatures. A town where it's always sunset where they play a sort of fighting game called Struggle. Another where there's a giant play area for kids with things like trampolines and roller coasters. A couple with pirates and flying and skeleton bad guys. One where holidays like Halloween and Christmas are separated just by a door.

And there are a couple where you can get a whole different set of powers like one where you get a summon called a Persona. Then another where you can learn to use magic or ride giant bird creatures.

[beyourzoomer]

[All of those worlds sound so much more appealing than giant monster world where silence reigns. She'd take pirates and skeleton bad guys in a hot second over monsters of unknown origin and not being able to talk.]

That's awesome. So if someone vanishes from here there's a good chance they won't get sent back to their own world? They might just end up in a place with trampolines and roller coasters?

[Because I'll take roller coaster world for a thousand, Alex.]

[skyofreverie]

[They are pretty fun but he also left out all the bad ones. He hasn't been able to control what world he goes to in a long time.]

There's a possibility. If I can figure out how to leave, I could even take you to a bunch of them.

[Which Sora would absolutely be willing to do.]

You'd get to meet all of my friends too. There's a lot of them.

[justbeingknife]

Could just put up somethin' on the bulletin board. Let people fill out what they want.

[ Hmm, that star map kind of had him thinking, though. Why was it included on the devices and not something more... useful? Like a calculator, or a function to use the light from the screen as a flashlight. ]

You seen the stars out around here? They the same as on normal Earth?

[justbeingknife]

Right. Speakin' of friends... you got anyone from back home with ya here?

[skyofreverie]

Nah, it's just me. [Which is actually really surprising since he has so many.]

Haven't seen any familiar faces around at all but that's okay. I make friends pretty easily.

[beyourzoomer]

[It's okay. Just let her think all the other worlds are much better than this one or home or the Upside Down and it'll soothe her nerves a little.]

That'd be awesome. [Also she's got a lot of people she wants to come along to a better place.]

What's your world like?

[beyourzoomer]

Yeah, good idea. [It'll be a good starting place, anyway.]

I haven't really paid attention, actually.

[It hadn't occurred to her.]

[justbeingknife]

Huh. Then I guess I know how I'm blowing an hour after sundown.

I'll let you know if there's anything outta the ordinary.

[skyofreverie]

[He doesn't know who's on the other side of the 'berry but Sora doesn't want to scare them more than they probably already are. The monsters here will do that enough.]

I'll take you to all my favorites.... okay, they're all my favorite so we'll have to visit all of them. [The more the merrier. Just so long as they all remember that the Friendship Ship runs on smiles.]

It's small but warm. Just a couple of islands with sky and ocean as far as the eye can see. There's the main island where everyone lives and knows each other's names. Then the other island that the adults helped us turn into a giant playground. It has a couple of treehouses, a tower with a zipline, some hidden caves and bridges. My friends and I like to sit on this crooked tree to watch the sunsets.

[beyourzoomer]

Okay.

Good luck. [After a beat, for reasons she doesn't really know at this point, she adds:]

Be careful.

un: touched

[waystation]

They told me there was a lull of a couple months before the arrivals started back up. Sounds like most of them had left town by the time we came.

[justbeingknife]

Only a couple months? That's not real long at all, then...

Did ya get the sense that 'left town' was literal?

[ Or you know... was it like going to live on a nice farm....? ]

[justbeingknife]

Don't have to tell me twice. But thanks -- you stay safe out there, too.

[waystation]

<sub>[Do you mean a euphemism for "greener pastures," Majima...

...

... actually, it's a fair question, 'cause he wondered the same thing.]</sub>

According to what I heard, they went exploring and didn't come back. No one saw them come back through the Reset Room, either. Maybe they're still out there.

[justbeingknife]

Yeah. Might even run into 'em.

If they are still around, they must've worked out ways to survive. Maybe managed to leave town. But it's hard to believe the surrounding towns are much better off than this one.

I wonder if this started off in one place.

un: eraserhead

[dryeyes]

[This is where the pin drops and Aizawa realizes that he's been looking out for his students without necessarily confirming they were on the same page. Hey, the whole being kidnapped thing sort of clashes with talking about current events back home.]

There was only one incident in which they were missing and the timeframe of them being missing currently doesn't add up with being stuck here. They would also be able to report if I had gone missing for one reason or another.

If any of the outsiders from before our time are still around, they haven't said anything about it.

[justbeingknife]

Do the rest of their memories add up? They don't remember things happenin' a slightly different way?

[ Because if so, Sora's explanation would seem to make some amount of sense, or at least as much as anything ever did around here. ]

Jake said that the last bunch left town a few months ago. You guys ever run across any trace of them bein' here? Did they used to live in the same houses we do now?

[dryeyes]

I'll have to probe them for details on that. There are four of us, now. I don't know why this place favors one world over another.

[If he could accept there were vastly different alternate realities, what about smaller ones? Could one of his students be hiding any sort of key event change? Ah, irritating. And it would have been much nicer if it had been limited to just him. The more students, the more worry headache.]

It's hard to tell what's traces of the society that used to be here and what's outsider technology. The houses were entirely empty when we moved in, so there's no evidence on that front.

[justbeingknife]

Maybe it's like playin' cards. Hard to take one from the deck without touching any others.

[ If only there was a convenient giant, glowing science lab somewhere they could storm for answers. At any rate, Majima was willing to entertain the possibility that the people who had been brought here had not been selected out of directed malevolence. Although... it was a little suspicious that there were so many kids around. ]

Be easier to ask the locals about it, but most of 'em act like they're too busy -- can't get more than one answer at a time.

[dryeyes]

It could be. I didn't even realize it was going to keep bringing outsiders, with that previous drought.

[A hideout raid would be far, far more satisfying than the sort of blind groping they were stuck doing. The locals implied they had no power over who was brought here and, despite his lack of trust in them, there was no reason to believe they were lying. Yet.]

I doubt the locals want us to make any progress. They'd rather we stay and help maintain their population. So, even if they know, they're not just going to feed us any useful information.

[justbeingknife]

Didn't a lady die helpin' you guys get a closer look at them Sound Eaters?

You think it was just to help keep ya in line?