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

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

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[A teenage boy is extricating himself with some difficulty from having been dumped, or appearing, in the middle of the fountain in the center of the village. He's muttering to himself and clambering out. He's dressed in the generic-enough North High uniform, but of more interest may be what he's saying -- which is picked up by the split-open journal next to him.]

...Really, Haruhi? After all of that, I'm in some other time and place again?! Oh, boy. She really just doesn't stop... Where the hell is it this time?

[Once he gets up and brushes himself off, he can be found staring with slightly less bewilderment than you might expect at his surroundings.]

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'...Well, that was instructive. A serious Haruhi. To be honest, if it weren't for the topic being so grim, I would welcome more moments like this.'

Hope you're not talking from experience there.

[He will have very little idea about where they're going, and he will in fact just follow blindly.]

No. [quickly. She winces visibly though] I've never died.

['...Now I'm worried.']

Then... has anything happened to someone else? A--[friend?]--close associate or whatever?

[...Pfft. That could almost make her laugh, honestly. It doesn't thought - she's not in that mood, not now. Instead, she just nods]

Yeah, bad things have happened before. [She evades it confirming or not confirming death though - they now leave the square.] But why are we even talking about this? Jeez, there's got to be other things you can ask about.

['I know an evasion when I hear one. But that's fair, if she's some alternate version of Haruhi that's from six months before and then lived two or three years after and there I go getting a Koizumi headache again. And he's not even here. This is why I need to punch him in the face.']

...Sure, I guess. How long did you say you've been here?

Three and a half years, not quite consecutively. If you're being exact, it's more like two and a half years, pause, come back, one more year. But that sort of trivial detail is more explanation than most people need to be fed, it's sort of like the back-story for the villains in movies? I mean who cares.

--Yeah, I think the length speaks for itself.

[He looks alarmed. It's even longer than he'd thought.]

Things must've changed a lot for you.

Well, I've had a lot of things happen, at least! It was really cool at first. I've seen aliens, a number of time disturbances, child assassins, mafiosos - or I think they were anyway - historical figures who happen to have weird hair colors, the fabled naturally blonde Japanese person, magicians, wizards, knights, demons, you name it. Like you already saw I've also got a working relationship with a magic-granting spirit entity.

[but that's glossing over all the bad things]

['A naturally blonde Japanese person?! This place truly is out of control...']

So are you pretty satisfied with it...?

['Or more satisfied with the world than you used to be? More satisfied with this world than our actual world?']

Not really. [A beat] I have so many things here that I can't give up on now for the circumstanced people apparently go home to, but I'm not satisfied with this world as it is one bit.

['If that's true, why hasn't anything been done about it...?']

Like your Brigade.

[Yeah, it's 'her' Brigade now.]

Yeah, like that. Of course, there's plenty more things to consider than that...

[A beat]

In any case- [And now she looks them around, heading back towards the square. Clearly having decided she's derailed enough] I've also gained a lot of skills and knowledge.

In doing what exactly? And what's all of these plenty more things, for that matter?

['Haruhi, if I were to add up everything you're saying, it smacks unerringly of "responsibility." I never thought it would come to this. Should I be relieved? Maybe I don't even have to take her with me when I get out of here. She doesn't even want it. Why is this making me so annoyed?']

[Ugh how does she even begin. She stops in place. The Welcome Center is just right there, and she sort of shifts, flushing a bit. "loved" "friends" - there's no way she can say things like that! It's too soon! So, she then shifts and concludes to go more broad]

[...] Sewing, singing, sports - I'm a lot better at baseball. Drawing, you name it. I even learned some magic. And as for the other things, well. I'm a household name here - this whole village will know of me. [A beat] And...

...I guess you could say I've been on a battlefield. [She mutters that last part. she's not proud, but he'll learn about the drafts eventually and it's somehow easier to say that then to mention the other stuff, somehow. So she pushes on ahead]

In light of that, I've got to see this through to the resolution. Not everyone agrees, of course, [And he pace picks up, towards the welcome center] but that's how I see it. It's not about wanting or not wanting to go home - it's... [Ugh guh, she sighs]

['Weren't you good at all of those things before? ...Except the whole battlefield thing. And the magic. But definitely not excepting making everyone know of you.']

Are you saying you do want to go home, but not yet?

You heard me say I've been home and back once, right?

Yeah.

Well that's a problem - I've seen other people do that, or different versions of other people show up. It just would leave a bad taste in my mouth to let this situation be.

['But was that really an answer to the question?']

So you want to end it first before going home.

Precisely. [A nod, and now she waves- there's the Welcome Center in all of its two floor glory. First floor: the maps, the layout, the help area and some beds in the side rooms. Second floor, tea shop]

...Isn't this across the street from where we just were?

No. [She haves a hand. It totally is though - you can even look back and see] Now hurry up and go in, they'll have beds and some needlessly clothless greened haired chick to manage you.

Edited 2011-12-01 22:33 (UTC)

['Even if I were blind, the very tone of voice in which she dismissed me there would have told me that she took me on a circuitous trip for no reason. Which is not such a bad way of describing her in general, I guess.']

Is that generally the welcoming committee around here?

[His tone doesn't sound like he objects too much, though.]

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