menial | 1 ~ when did I stop believing in Santa Claus? [audio/action]

'Dammit, Maebara, you were supposed to get me out of this!

Oh, well, she seems to be taking the revelation that I'm a time traveler pretty well. Then again, if this is a new world, maybe that doesn't matter so much. I don't know. Where's Koizumi?'

How do you figure that, exactly?

[Sorry, pal, but it is important. There was nothing to get you out of.]

Because that's how things often work in this world. We're all taken from different times, sometimes from different worlds even. Just by asking what's the last someone remembers it's easy to know if they are from further ahead in time or not. Though with the time she has spent here she's technically older than you, most probably.

[...Actually, Keiichi has a good point. She starts to math that out in her head. Kyon's birthday is... then, so that means- oh. Heh. She smirks, but the waves at Keiichi]

Keiichi there's from 1983.

'I guess I suspected as much. Or at least, it's not a complete surprise, judging from the way this stuff works usually, which is to say, not at all, and Haruhi's reaction.

I have to admit, I never knew exactly what would happen to us if she did find the supernatural and alien and so on. Apparently... not so much? Yet? Or maybe there's another explanation behind it.

...What's the point in me running around in circles like this, anyway?'

Ah.

And how long exactly is it that you've been here, then, Haruhi?

Four years, if I remember right. Though she left for a few months a year ago so it may be less than that.

[Not that he was the one asked but...]

Three and a half, at this point. [She doesn't know why she bothers to correct Keiichi there, actually...]

[Kyon is decidedly taken aback. He makes a funny sound and then stops short.]

'Three and a half years... But she left our world before me. Am I supposed to try and reason that out? I refuse. I'm just not going to think about it. Where's Koizumi when you need him? In fact, where is he at all? What am I doing here? Usually there's something I have to do before getting back to our world, but I'm getting a sinking feeling about that.'

Three and a half years, huh? And you've expanded the Brigade quite a bit.

'What is that part about? What even is the SOS Brigade without the five of us? Is it really true that she could have picked any four people, or even more, and made it her brigade? It's not that I'm obsessed with being important to her, or this, but--

Hell! The lesson of the little adventure I just went through was that only we can be the SOS Brigade. I thought so, anyway.'

[He frowns markedly.]

Six months aren't that much, it's still closer to four than to just three.

[He eyes Kyon, noticing the funny sound he makes. It's not really hard to imagine what the issue is, at least part of it.]

Don't try to reason time flow here by the rules you know, [There's a cat mewling at one of the windows.]. Think of it like a video-game or a movie. You have your life in your world, with your sister and your family, your school and everything, that would be movie 1, one day you pause it, or rather you're forced to pause it. It's not the same as making it stop, and you switch to play a video-game rather than keep watching the movie. When you're tired of the game, you return to the movie, continuing it and everything goes on as normal on it, as if you never paused it.

Basically, Haruhi was taken from a time that for you is in the past, but that time-line stopped moving on while she's here so no one noticed her absence. When she returns she will return to the very second she left, continuing her life as normal... Until April 16th or 18th, time at which you're brought here and meet her before she's returned.

[He actually even tries to make an explanation drawing.]

[ ... Oh Keiichi. She's so used to you going off on odd tangents (and she's so put aback by Kyon being here) she doesn't even stop you. there's no point in trying to. Even when he goes to draw on the white board. she does get progressively more :| but. She'll let this distract things for now]

Thanks, professor.

'Koizumi's spirit lives on.

Naturally, I don't understand any of that. Okay, well, I understood some of it. I guess I got the gist. The point is that this place is totally different, yada yada yada, and nothing I do can affect the old timeline? Is that right?'

[He finds himself getting increasingly :| as it goes on, too.]

I guess I should take notes.

So, Haruhi. When are you from, then?

[Keiichi just rolls his eyes at both of you. He was just trying to explain it so it wouldn't be too mind-blowing and because the old simple 'time stops at your world while you're here' may not cut it in this situation. Whatever, he takes seat again.]

December. After Christmas.

'More than a fair number of things have happened since then. Everything involving the Sky Canopy Domain, the time traveler bastard, Tachibana Kyoko, even that issue of the literary magazine, not to mention... But why am I bothering to recount these things, anyway?'

You remember everything up to December, but then you have three and a half extra years of memories? From this place?

'Is it my job to get her out of here? Haven't I earned a moment of rest, at least? This is definitely where I need help from Nagato or Koizumi. Even Asahina-san. She's the time travel expert, after all.'

Has a lot happened?

I said Christmas - we still haven't had our New Year yet as I remember it.

[New Years is important, so she makes that distinction. ~~Thus she has now experienced Love At First Sight, Snowy Mountain Syndrome, or Where Did the Cat Go? for those keeping score at home~~ but mostly she makes the distinction to excuse what she needs to say next. Has a lot happened? Of course a lot's happened, you idiot. She's loved, lost, loved again, encountered alternate dimensions and people and magic and gained magic-.

Actually. she mutters to herself and calls on Eferin. A fireball comes to develop in her palm as she holds it out]

A lot.

Right, Christmas.

[He makes a note to figure out precisely where that is some other time. Just now, Haruhi appears to have a fireball in her h--]

'Where the hell did she get a fireball in her hands?! Did some cruel deity think that Haruhi wasn't dangerous enough?! What kind of sick joke is this, universe? Haruhi looking like Koizumi. Koizumi's spirit being in some guy from the 80's. Still have these silly wings on my back, too! Can't forget that.'

[After a brief spazzing out, he calms down and stares at it phlegmatically.]

That's great. You're an esper now.

More like a witch or a magician. She's just using the powers of the fire filial spirit, it's not as if those powers are in her naturally.

[At least from the way he understands an esper is.]

What Keiichi said! Make a distinction, jeez.

[And now she closes her hand, putting the fireball out] ...As you said, the Brigade's expanded a lot. We're around a dozen members right not and out objective's changed a little too in the last few months. [A beat. She knows this must be alien for Kyon but oh well]

A lot's happened.

[And this time her tone just comes off... tired. A little distant. Because there have been good times, but right now she's thinking back to all the bad ones. Keiiching being in the room doesn't help]

'Oh, good, so they're remedying her excessive lack of natural powers, is that it?!

--But there are bigger matters at hand. A dozen members?! And Haruhi looking... strangely serious about it. Not that the Brigade isn't serious business sometimes, but that isn't an expression you usually see on her.

I can't say, in the bottom of my heart, I feel happy about this. I feel strongly that the Brigade is no one but us, but more than that, I don't like the way she's saying that.'

I can tell. You don't seem entirely yourself. And the objective of the Brigade has changed? To what?

[You don't seem entirely yourself. While Keiichi agrees that she's getting serious and distant, those words in the mouth of a guy who hasn't been here through all of what Haruhi has gone through... Keiichi pouts but decides to say nothing about that.]

In short? To help people with their problems in any way we can, offering support and advice. And if the issue is too much for us, we put people in contact with more prepared people to deal with it.

[...]

The Brigade here isn't the same as the one at home.

[Lightly. Keiichi did sum up her conclusion, yes, but now with Kyon in front of her, she somehow feels like she's betraying her memories]

'Yes, I'm sure the welling irritation I feel has to do largely with having been dunked in a cold fountain and being told I'm in yet another ridiculous mess. But maybe also to do with my going through all of that pain in the ass stuff to save the Brigade, and suddenly being told that it's a whole new thing.'

[He keeps his expression decidedly controlled, though that very levelness conveys a slight measure of annoyance in it.]

Same name, though, huh? And the new SOS Brigade is a support group.

There are many ways to bring excitement to people. And you can hardly do it properly when they are drowning in problems and issues with no one caring to even listen them.

[He doesn't see anything wrong in keeping the same name, or in what the Brigade has turned out to be.]

[...sigh]

Yeah, same name! And you know what, it's a hit! My Spreading Excitement All Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya has lived up to its name, and it's got tons of members, tons of insight, and a lot of sway! Power and resources and- and- And none of you guys were there! [...He's going off topic, and advancing on Kyon again.]

Koizumi's never been here! His cousin was once but- Yuki's never been here - not the real one, from my memories, and even the alternates didn't last! Mikuru's never been here! And even you- This is only the secon- third? Whatever! It's been years!

[But as soon as she finishes, she folds her arms and, well, pouts. She still doesn't know how to react here and it's pissing her off]

'I listened to all of that calmly. Mostly calmly. 'Many ways to bring excitement to people'. 'Tons of members, tons of insight, and a lot of sway?'

Yeah, maybe that was one of Haruhi's dreams. But somehow it's just not the same as the Brigade that I signed up for. I honestly don't know if it's better or not. Helping people? The SOS Brigade only rarely manages something like that. Most of the time we just do what we please, and save the universe mostly from ourselves. So maybe it's better?

But all I can say is what I feel in my heart, that if it's not us, it's not the real SOS Brigade. All of us. Even Koizumi. I'll punch him in the face, but he can still be there. What is she trying to say? That she succeeded without us? That we're all replaceable? Does she really believe that?

Is that actually true? Or is she actually just upset that we weren't here and that she needed to make some other version of the Brigade to make up for it?

It reminds me of those stories where a soldier goes off to war and is presumed dead, so his fiance marries another man, but it turns out he was a prisoner of war all along and comes home. Not that I watch that kind of movie. My aunt loves that kind of thing, though.

Where was I? Probably just trying to distract myself, right? How am I going to treat it anything like the old clubroom without Nagato sitting by the window, or Asahina-san cutely serving tea, or Koizumi smiling that damned smile at me while proffering the board games?'

[A rather lengthy pause later, he sighs.]

It's hardly our fault that we haven't been here when we have no idea how to get here. If it's your brigade, you can do whatever you want with it. I'm not arguing.

[His tone doesn't speak agreement, though: it has clear overtones of "we'll have to agree to disagree".]

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