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.]

Comments

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[so_shik]

...oh, you mean the Brigade there. [She thought that didn't make sense, but who knows with Keiichi.] Got it.

She only briefly told me about Koizumi.

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[menial]

Ah. Well, he's an overly-handsome guy who won't stop smiling. And his job is to close the Closed Spaces.

['And should I be worried there's a new Vice Chief, too? It just further emphasizes that everything is different here.'

He looks a little more dismayed still.]

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[so_shik]

So wait, explain something to me. How exactly does somebody close the Closed Spaces?

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[menial]

[He shrugs.]

It's not my area of expertise, but it apparently involves cutting the Shinjin to pieces with esper powers, after which the thing collapses in on itself.

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[so_shik]

...okay and the Shinjin is? Better yet, what exactly is an esper?

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[menial]

The big giant glowing blue things with the freaky eyes. And an esper is, well, it's a little recursive.

['If that's what that word means.']

Apparently some people were endowed by Haruhi with the power to enter Closed Spaces and then use their weird cheating flying powers to kill them.

[He pauses. It's kind of weird for him to talk to an outsider about this.]

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[so_shik]

...oh. I mean...I wasn't in the Closed Space. A few others were, but not me. Does Haruhi actually know that she endowed these people, or was it another fluke?

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[menial]

Part of the same fluke, apparently. A lot of stuff about what happened 'four years ago'.

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[so_shik]

Four years ago...I feel like that's more ominous than it should be.

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Believe me, it's ominous. Every time it comes up, I learn something else I didn't ever want to have to bother thinking about.

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[so_shik]

Like bad things or weird things?

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[menial]

Usually weird and needing to be taken care of, but not necessarily bad.

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[so_shik]

Then again? I guess then again it depends what would be considered bad in this kind of thing.

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[menial]

...As for what precisely happened four years ago, apparently something which could either be described as a 'timequake', an 'explosion of data', or a 'sudden world change.' Also possibly the time the world was recreated, a barrier to time travel, or the birth of a potential for autoevolution.

['I've gotten glib at this.']

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[so_shik]

Recreation. And this just happens...whenever she feels like it. Right?

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[menial]

Yeah. Or more accurately, whenever she feels unsatisfied.

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[so_shik]

So what does that tell you about her opinion of this place? I've never seen it be recreated.

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[menial]

Well, if it had been, I imagine you wouldn't have seen it. That's the theory, anyway.

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[so_shik]

Good enough theory. I've never really asked her how her powers work and all of the technical details.

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[menial]

On the other hand, if you saw a Closed Space once... How did that happen?

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[so_shik]

That's a question I unfortunately don't have an answer for. I guess it just...did.

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[menial]

Hmm.

Well, where was it, exactly?

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[so_shik]

Here in the village? Where else would it be?

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[menial]

They're often kind of local, though. Once we were trapped inside our school, for example. Was it the whole village, then?

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[so_shik]

...don't think so. When it happened, it was like...everyone else was okay except for the people who were trapped. It was an isolated area.